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V 
“There Is No Death” 


Addresses on The Life Beyond 


NEL PAP OFT \ ey 


} SEAL BERS 
/ By 
ROBERT J. “MacALPINE, M.A., D.D. 


Minister, Central Prashyienien Church 
Buffalo, N. Y. 


Author of ‘* What Is True Religion ?”’ 





New York CHICAGO 


Fleming H. Revell Company 


LONDON AND EDINBURGH 


Copyright, McMxxvi, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 


New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 


To the memory of 
my good Father 
and my dear son Robert 
Knox, who now know that 
there 1s no death 


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AUTHOR’S FOREWORD 


HESE addresses were delivered from the 
pulpit of Central Presbyterian Church, 
Buffalo, N. Y. Most of them were 
broadcast. They were designed specially for the 
bereaved. They are published in response to 
many requests from various parts of the United 
States and Canada. Thus are they sent forth with 
the fervent prayer and hope that they may be of 
some comfort to those over whom have gathered 
the sorrow-filled clouds of bereavement. 


R. J. M. 
Buffalo, N. Y. 


ey 


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aL: 


VI. 


VII. 


Contents 


Gop’s BLessincs THRoUGH TROUBLE 
“ For our light affliction, which is but for 
a moment, worketh for us a far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” 
—II Cor1ntHians 4:17. 

How to View DEATH 
“ And when Jesus had cried ahith a ae 
voice, he said, ‘ Father, into Thy hands 
I commend my Spirit’ ”—LuKE 23: 46. 

Way WE Are Sure THERE IS A LIFE 
HEREAFTER : 
“Tf a man die, shall he ie adalat — 
Jos 14:14. 

Wuy TuHeEere Must BE a HEREAFTER 
“He is not here: for He ts risen.’— 
MatTTHEw 28:6. 

WINNING THE WAITING CROWN : 
“T have fought a good fight, I have 
finished my course, I have kept the 
faith: henceforth there is laid up for me 
a crown of righteousness, which the 
Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me 
at that day: and not to me only, but unto 
all them that love his appearing.’—II 
Trmotny 4: 7-8. 

SHALL We Know EaAcu OTHER HERE- 
AFTER? 

“Then shall I eS even as 5 eg am 
known.’—I CortnTutians 13:12. 
ComForT IN THE Hour or DEATH 


“Let not your heart be troubled.’— 
Joun 14:1. 


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I 
GOD’S BLESSINGS THROUGH TROUBLE 


“For our light affliction, which is but for a 
moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory.’— II CorINTHIANS 
4:17 


HY we suffer is one of life’s greatest 
problems. Perhaps it is the greatest 
unsolved problem the world has ever 


faced. It is a question all ages have asked. And 
it has been the one, perhaps above all, nearest to 
the heart of humanity since its beginning. 

We have our problems, many and great. Just 
now, we are trying to solve the question whether 
we came from a monkey, or from dust, or both, or 
neither. And were an angel to come to earth direct 
from the hand of God to give us the true answer, 
we should be little better or worse off. We should 
still have the Ten Commandments and the Gospel 
of Jesus Christ. And they would be just as bind- 
ing upon us; and our responsibility to God and to 
each other would be just as great; and the great 
problems of human life would still require to be 
answered. ‘There would remain for us a problem 
vastly greater. And that is the question, Why 

11 


12 “THERE IS NO DEATH ” 


must we suffer so much? Why does God allow it? 
Has He a purpose in doing so? And if so, what 
is that purpose? And how can we best deal with 
our sufferings? We have many problems. There 
is the problem of how to make a living—how to 
make ends meet. There is the problem of how to 
increase our wealth. There is the problem of how 
to conquer disease. But from the beginning, un- 
derneath all these, is the great problem, How can 
we escape trouble? And if we cannot escape it, 
how can we make the most of it? What should 
we doP 

* Our first thought is—how can we escape trouble? 

For, as one of old said: ‘‘ Man that is born of a 
woman is of few days and full of trouble.” Then 
how can we get away from it? It seems so natural 
to flee trouble. The earliest instinct of the child is 
_ to fear trouble and to run from it. This is also true 
of all animal life. How the hare and the fox and 
the bird will run from it! 

Trouble besets us on every hand. The lawyer 
spends two-thirds of his time adjusting legal 
troubles. The physician spends most of his time 
correcting physical troubles. The minister spends 
three-fourths of his time dealing with mental and 
moral and spiritual troubles. Therefore we ask 
again the question—Why so much trouble? Sooner 
or later, no one escapes it. It is a question, there- 
fore, upon the lips of every person. Perhaps a 
quarter of a million are hearing my voice. And not 


GOD’S BLESSING THROUGH TROUBLE 13 


one of these but knows the meaning of trouble. It 
matters not whether you have health and wealth 
and position. Trouble slips in and is upon you, no 
matter what your circumstances. Solomon enjoyed 
all these blessings, and yet from the deep of his 
soul he cries, “ All is vanity.” And who has not 
asked, like Nicodemus, “‘ How can these things 
bee ” 

As yet, we have no answer to this question. We 
have not discovered a solution to the problem of 
suffering. We have discovered every continent and 
river and island in the world. We have discovered 
the secrets of steam, power and electricity. We 
have invented the telegraph, the telephone, the 
radiophone, and a thousand other inventions. We 
have conquered land and sea and air. We have 
unlocked the secret chambers of Nature on every 
hand. We have discovered the mysteries that have 
been held in secret since the beginning of time. 
And yet, with all these, we have not discovered the 
secret of trouble. 

While this is true, there are finger-posts that 
point us to the high-road whereupon somewhere is 
found the answer. We all believe the world has 
progressed. There is no doubt as to this. From 
the early beginnings of time, man has moved up- 
ward and onward physically, intellectually, indus- 
trially, politically, morally, spiritually and every 
other way. To verify this we have but to glance 
for a moment at history. We have but to study the 


14 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


elementary findings of paleontology, psychology, 
philology and biology. However much fundamen- 
talists and modernists may disagree as to the ex- 
planation of this progress, they thoroughly agree 
that great progress has been made. 

And we all believe that the human race will con- 
tinue to progress. Almost every hour a new dis- 
covery or a new invention is made. Every year we 
shall continue to grow better flowers, better grain, 
better stock. Every year we shall continue to 
make better roads, better automobiles, better ma- 
chinery. Every year we shall continue to find the 
secret of some disease. Every year we shall con- 
tinue to carry on new deeds of world-wide human 
betterment. We shall continue to hold world con- 
ventions, to make world leagues and covenants for 
the continued improvement of humanity. World 
peace lies not far ahead over the hills of passing 
years. The sunlight of permanent industrial good- 
will will continue to rise upon the horizon. Lead- 
ers in various departments of human activity are 
telling us everywhere that to-day we are in the be- 
ginnings of a new age of human improvement over 
all the earth, and that it will continue into God’s 
great To-morrow. They tell us that the world will 
keep on moving toward the “one far-off divine 
event.” They give us every assurance that world 
forces are at work steadily perfecting the universe. 
That God is in His laboratory daily bringing about 
the day when He shall ‘‘ complete the pile.” 


GOD’S BLESSING THROUGH TROUBLE 15 


Now we ask, in the face of so much trouble, how 
can this progress go on? Here we come upon a 
mystery. In a sentence, it is this: The history of 
the world’s advance is inseparably wrapped up 
with the history of trouble. The periods of great- 
est progress have come with the periods of greatest 
strife and strain. While Israel was struggling for 
her life, she came to her greatest life. When she 
sat down robed in her glory, she began to decline. 
When Rome was meeting her enemy on every hand, 
she rose to her greatest power. When she con- 
quered the world, her struggling over, she ceased 
to grow. Britain’s imperial democracy was born 
from the throes of internal strife. France came to 
her greatest through the sorrows of revolution. 
The United States came to her independence and 
the greatness of her unity through the pains of war. 

It has been so with the Church. The greatest 
periods of her martyrdom and persecution have 
been the greatest periods of her advance. Indeed, 
all the great accomplishments that have crowned 
the history of civilization have come through strug- 
gle and strain. We have only to think of what it 
cost Columbus to leave behind him all that was 
dear and face the boundless main. And up out of 
the sufferings of his body and soul came forth the 
discovery of a continent. We have but to think of 
the Pilgrims who suffered beyond measure in the 
giving up of Home and Country and Church, in bat- 
tling with storm and privation, so that within twelve 


16 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


months one-half of their number were gone. And 
from the womb of this suffering was born a New 
World. We have but to go back to the day of our 
birth when from the pangs of suffering we were 
born into time. And one step more. Somehow it 
was not possible that the cup of suffering should 
pass from the Saviour of men. Somehow it was 
necessary that He should be “‘a man of sorrows 
and acquainted with grief.””’ Somehow, in the 
economy of things, it was necessary that the in- 
iquity of us all should be laid upon Him; that, 
somehow, “with His stripes we are healed”; 
that, somehow, in the great plan of the world’s 
Creator “‘ He must needs suffer”; that, somehow, 
in the cosmic purpose of things He must needs be 
lifted up and crucified for the final perfecting of 


- Li man . 


The blessing of trouble seems to be a law at work 
everywhere. In one of his splendid essays, Bore- 
.. ham tells us a story of the fish-pens at Lake King. 
A quarter of an acre of water was fenced off near 
the shore. Into this fish-pen the fish-catches were 
placed. And here they were kept for market. For 
many a day it was known that, somehow, the fish 
in these pens did not thrive. Their flesh soon be- 
came slack and soft and flabby. And therefore it 
was necessary often to take them to market while 
the price was yet anything but desirable. What 
was the matter? The water was of the same 
quality and temperature. ‘The fish were given 


GOD’S BLESSING THROUGH TROUBLE 17 


plenty to eat. They were protected on every hand. 
Just here was the trouble. A certain fisherman dis- 
covered the secret of how to overcome the diffi- 
culty. The fish in his pens remained strong and 
vigorous and fit. They brought the biggest price 
at Billingsgate market. But not till the day of his 
death did he tell the secret. He kept a catfish in 
his fish-pen. It kept the fish in a ferment of strug- 
gle. It made trouble for them. And their trouble 
kept them firm and fresh. Why could not these 
fish be left in peace and still be strong and fit? We 
do not know. We only know that a law of progress 
was at work. It was the principle of dlessing 
through trouble. It was this principle that Darwin 
came upon after twenty years of investigation. He 
called it “ the struggle for existence.” He found 
that everywhere with struggle came the higher or- 
ganism and the higher function of the higher life. 
And so, once again we ask ourselves the ques- 
tion—Why so much trouble? Why should we not 
live in quiet and rest and peace? We seem to be 
hounded by day and night. We are driven from 
pillar to post. We struggle to make a living, to 
make ends meet. We struggle against disease and 
pain. We struggle against the selfishness of man. 
We struggle against the evil in our own breasts. 
So each can say, like Paul, ‘‘ When I would do 
good, evil is present with me; the good that I 
would, I do not, and the evil which I would not, 
that I do.” In the language of the fisherman, the 


> af 


18 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


catfish is in the waters of our life. Why? We do 
not know. But we do know that a great law of 
development is thus at work. We do know that 
somehow in the great plan of the Perfector we must 
have trouble. We know that the most enduring 
timber of the world comes from the Norway pines 
—trees which have withstood the winds and the 
storms of a hundred years. We know that with the 
exception of the ant, perhaps nothing living toils 
like the bee. And through their toil and their suf- 
fering comes the honey. We do not know why the 
thorn should bristle beneath the flowering rose, but 
we do know that up from it all there blooms the 
most beautiful and fragrant of all the world’s 
flowers. 

Trouble seems to be a part of the constitution of 
things. It seems to have a vital place in the econ- 
omy of all development. It does not happen. It 
is divinely ordered. As a law of progress it takes 
its place beside gravitation, sunlight, rain, food, 
water, truth and right in the making and perfect- 
ing of human life. We know not why sunlight, 
rain and truth and right are required. No less do 
we know why trouble is required. It is one of the 
laws which Christ came to fulfill. And he fulfilled 
it to the letter. “Perfect through suffering,” 
seems, like a golden thread, to run through all 
Sacred Word. The Suffering of Calvary and then 
the Crown of Glory. 

History tells us the story over and over. Surely 


GOD’S BLESSING THROUGH TROUBLE 19 


no man had greater trouble than Job, yet from his 
suffering he came forth as gold refined in the fire. 
Perhaps the greatest apostle of the early Church 
was Paul. He explained the secret of his great- 
ness when he said, “‘ I have fought a good fight.” 
We see it every day. A friend of mine, a minister, 
said that some time ago, after preaching in a 
strange pulpit, he asked his host who a certain lady 
was. He had been attracted to her as she sat in 
the pew before him. There was something angelic 
about her face. This was the secret: during the 
last six years she had lost all her family, her four 
children and her husband. And out of it all she 
came forth transformed into the likeness of the 
Master. My mind at once turned to the man who 
to me was nearer to that of an angel than anyone 
I have ever known. Every line of his face glis- 
tened with divinity. And why? He had seven 
brothers and sisters, but none of them approached 
him in the beauty and sublimity of soul. Here is 
the secret: For thirty-one years he had lain upon 
his back. As we read the history of the world’s 
greatest saints and heroes, we see in the back- 
ground clouds upon clouds of trouble. And when 
we follow John into the City of God we hear him 
ask, ‘‘ Who are these? ” And back comes the an- 
swer, ‘‘ These are they that came through great 
tribulation [trouble] and washed their robes and 
made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Sure 


a 


20 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


it is that, somehow, trouble purges, cleanses, puri- 
fies, renews, transforms, and perfects us. 

So, dear heart, perhaps you are bearing some 
great burden. The catfish is in the wells of your 
heart’s life. You are struggling against disease, or 
loss, or disappointment, or doubt, or temptation, or 
loneliness, or opposition of some kind—and you 
wonder why? Do not forget these are God’s best 
gifts in blessed disguise. These afflictions are 
“‘ working out ” for you “ a far more exceeding and 
eternal weight of glory.” Do not try to find the 
explanation from any of the things that you see 
round about you. The explanation of it is found 
far deep in the recesses of your inner soul. There 
the Rewarder of all is at work unseen and silent. 
And one day He will show you the meaning of it 
and you will be filled “ with joy unspeakable and 


| full of glory.” 


TO 


Paul did not leave us our text without this as- 
surance. For in pain, “ We look not at the things 
which are seen,” he says, “‘ but at the things which 
are not seen; for the things which are seen are tem- 
poral; but the things which are not seen are eter- 
nal.” Jesus reminded the disciples that in this 
world they would have all manner of trouble. But 
He immediately added, ‘“‘ Rejoice, and be exceeding 
glad; for great is your reward in heaven.” Once 
more, we hear Him say to the Church at Laodicea, 
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with 
Me in My throne, even as I also overcame and am 


GOD’S BLESSING THROUGH TROUBLE 21 


sat down with My Father in His throne.” Then 
remember that after the night-time of trouble 
dawns the day—the unending, cloudless day of 
glory with the King of kings. Then shall we reign 
with Him over empires of which this earth will be 
but a parish. 

Take your trouble and with steadfast faith and | 
strong resolve, make out of it your soul’s priceless 
wealth. When the oyster is troubled with a grain 
of sand, he lays hold upon it and out of it makes 
the pearl of great price. Nobly face your trouble 
and grip the hand of God. And out of your trial 
will come forth your “‘ Pearl of great price.” 

Do not forget, therefore, that the troubles you 
have to bear are really not a cross, but a crown. 
Margaret Slattery tells the story of her experience 
at a fire-ranger’s camp out in the Rocky Moun- 
tains. The ranger had explained to her how he 
was constantly on the outlook for forest fires. Dur- 
ing the night she woke with a light reflecting in her 
room. In great haste she hurried to tell the ranger 
that there was a forest fire. He looked out and 
then quietly turned to her and said, “‘ That is not 
a forest fire; that’s the morning-dawn.” And so, 
what seems to you a loss, or perhaps a calamity, 
will one day prove to be the morning-dawn of your 
great blessed to-morrow beyond the hills of time. 
From the cup of Jesus’ suffering came His reward. 
For, as Dean Inge says, “‘ The cup of suffering and 
the cup of blessing . . . are they not the same 


22 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


cup?” As Cowper sang when he saw the priceless 
meaning of his troubled years: 
“Ve fearful saints, fresh courage take, 
The clouds ye so much dread 
Are big with mercy, and shall break 
In blessings on your head.” 

Perhaps no trouble hangs so heavily over us as 
the clouds of death. And there is no truth that 
comes to us with greater clearness than that the 
troubles of death work out for us the glory of a 
higher and realer life. Without a doubt it was this 
fact that the Master had in mind when, under the 
shadow of His death, He said, ‘‘ Let not your heart 
be troubled.” He knew that the greatest of all 
blessings that can come to the lives of the good on 
earth is the “ one clear call.” He knew that after 
the night of death comes the dawn of the blessed, 
endless, cloudless day. 

Then your crown! Then your “reward in 
heaven!” Then your “ joy unspeakable!” Then 
your “exceeding and eternal weight of glory!” 
Then your prize for which every pain and tear were 
a thousand times worth while! If only for a mo- 
ment you could see it all as Jesus sees it, that in- 
stant your clouds of trouble would vanish like the 
darkness before the radiant sun. Then from the 
deep of your now troubled heart, you would “ re- 
joice and be exceeding glad.” 


If 
HOW TO VIEW DEATH 


“ And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, 
He said, Father, into thy hands I commend my 
spirit.’—LUKE 23: 46. 


EVER in the history of time has Christ 
| \ reigned so universally. And never, there- 
fore, have His life and death so borne 

upon our hearts. 

The world has long since been interested in the 
purpose of Jesus’ death, but it has never shown 
much concern as to how He died. Our text tells 
us how. Since the World War with its train of 
sorrow and pain threw the earth into upheaval, 
death seems to have taken on a new meaning. 
The art of dying seems to have become the 
supreme glory of living. Death seems to possess 
a more essential place in God’s great cosmic plan. 
It seems to be the door through which civilization 
must reach its divine appointment of perfection. 
So the question of how to die well becomes a 
matter of vital importance, and the answer is 
found in our text. 

How to die depends largely upon our conception 


of death. To the mind of Jesus death was not a 
23 


Q4 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


calamity but a blessing. “ Blessed are the dead,” 
He declared. He saw in it the progressiveness of 
God’s purpose for men. It was to Him the cul- 
mination, the climax, of every earthly ideal and 
activity. It was the hour for which every other 
hour on earth existed. It was the door to which 
opened every other door of time. It belonged to 
the sublimest orderings of all the universe. In it, 
were all the laws of life fulfilled. In short, Jesus 
saw in death the culmination of the will of God. 

How different has been the paganistic concept 
of men. Most pagan peoples have viewed death 
as a cruel monster and a calamity, to be forever 
feared and shunned. They have seen no reason 
for it. It has been entirely void of vital relation- 
ship. It has possessed no cosmic design. It be- 
longs to no order of events; it possesses no se- 
quence of purpose.. In this respect we are yet 
living in primitive pre-Christian days. We have 
scarcely begun to grasp the mind of the Master 
concerning this most certain and important of all 
life’s experiences. 

I note first of all that Jesus, in dying, recog- 
nized in death the will of God. He died readily 


and willingly, not because He was obliged by any > 
law of necessity to do so, but because He saw 


that His death belonged to the noble order of life. 
He saw that it made for the enlargement and en- 
hancement of that order. It was just the same 
principle that animated our soldiers at the front 


HOW TO VIEW DEATH 25 


during the war. They died because their death 
was a glorious part and parcel of the victory for 
which they fought. 

The same principle holds in everyday life. 
Why do I pay my debts? Why do I provide for 
my family? Why do I obey the law of the land? 
Because I must? Never. It is because paying 
my debts, keeping my family and obeying the law 
belong to the fundamental laws of all civic life. 
Thus do I die, not because I must, but because it 
is a great thing to die—because death belongs to 
the profoundest necessity of my ever-evolving 
being. It is the voice of God and I answer as 
does the soldier to his call of duty. 

It was in this spirit that Jesus approached 
death. He did not surrender to death—He ac- 
cepted it. He did not submit to death—He 
adopted it. He did not avoid death—He appro- 
priated it. He did not contend with death—He 
entered into partnership with it. He did not 
destroy death—He fulfilled it. He did not con- 
quer death—He fathomed it. He did not fear 
death—He assimilated it. In His death, the laws 
of nature had their fullest sway. But in those 
same laws of nature Jesus found the glory of His 
death. He appropriated them all. He comman- 
deered every one of them, so that in His death 
they might culminate for Him the supreme victory 
of His life. He made them all His attending ser- 
vants even unto death. And this is just what God 


26 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


intended from the first they should be to every one 
of His true law-abiding children. 

I want you here to note further how Jesus ap- 
proached death. It was the same approach as 
when He prayed at other times. Over and over 
again He prayed, “ Father.” And now with that 
same gentle, child-like, trustful spirit, He ap- 
proaches death. ‘“ Father”—oh, think of it— 
“ Father!” What a word! What a thought!— 
in the face of death. He did not see before Him 

the darkness of the night. No; He beheld the 
- full-orbed light of His Father’s face. He did not 
feel Himself passing into the ruthless grip of 
natural laws. No; He saw Himself being lifted 
up into the hands of His Father—‘ Father, into 
thy hands I commend my spirit.” He realized 
that death, after all, is but the blessed reality of 
going out into the loving arms of the Father of 
us all. Thus when we say, “ Father,’ the fear of 
death leaves us, like the mist before the rising sun. 
It is bigger than all our doubts and dogmas. It 
rolls away the stone from the tomb’s great door. 
It tells us, in one word, the story of ‘“‘ better things 
to come”; of “a land that is fairer than day ”; 
of the “house with many rooms”; of the “ city 
not made with hands”; of the “robe of right- 
eousness ”; of the “rest that remaineth”; of a 
“joy unspeakable and full of glory”; of the 
“peace that passeth ail understanding.” When 
Jesus teaches us how to pray He tells us to say, 


HOW TO VIEW DEATH 27 


“Our Father.” And now with the self-same words 
He teaches us how to die. 

Just here, I observe a question in your minds. 
You ask: ‘‘ Why, then, are we told that ‘ the last 
enemy that shall be destroyed is death’?” First 
of all see what is here meant by death. The same 
Scriptures answer us. ‘The wages of sin is 
death.” So we see that the last enemy to be de- 
stroyed is sin. Jesus did not destroy death as we 
commonly mean by the phenomenon called death. 
Men still die and always will, so long as the human 
race is formed out of dust. Moreover, Jesus did 
not intend that death should be destroyed. What 
then? He took the fotson—the sting—out of 
death. He took out of it the thing that makes 
us fear it—sin. Listen to John the Baptist when 
first he catches a glimpse of Jesus. He did not 
exclaim, ‘‘ Behold the King of kings!” He did 
not cry out, “‘ Behold the world’s greatest Teacher!” 
He did not acclaim, ‘‘ Behold the Reformer of all 
the ages!” No,—with one clarion note he an- 
nounced, “ Behold the Lamb of God that taketh 
away the sin of the world.’ With sin taken away 
death has lost its sting. ‘‘O death,” cries Paul, 
““where is thy sting?” Jesus became the anti- 
toxin to death. We used to dread diphtheria. 
Now the anti-toxin has delivered us from this age- 
long fear. But diphtheria has not been destroyed; 


_ only, its poison power has*been removed. The re- 


28 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


deeming grace of Christ has become the great 
anti-toxin to sin. 


“TI need Thy presence every passing hour, 
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?” 


Jesus did not set aside the laws of death; He 
freed them from the toxin of sin. He did not 
ignore the forces of death; He clarified them. He 
did not neglect God’s purposes in death; He liber- 
ated them. He did not cut down the vine of 
death; He made it blossom. He did not destroy 
a single branch on the vine of death; He made of 
it a great tree of life laden with all manner of 
precious fruit. Ah, no—He did not destroy 
‘death; but He annihilated every last vestige of 
_ cause for fearing it. He transformed death from 
‘a skull and cross-bones into the everlasting arms 
of the World’s Great Father—God. He did not 
take away the inevitable necessity of death. No 
—He just revealed the eternal Fatherhood and 
Glory of it all. ‘Father, inte Thy hands I com- 
mend My spirit.” 

But, tragedy of our ignorance,—how the cen- 
turies have missed this master view of death! 
How the generations have groped along the dark 
valleys of unmitigated sorrow! For ages elec- 
tricity filled Christendom with the fear of destruc- 
tion. Witchcraft tortured untold multitudes of 
innocents, till, at last, Benjamin Franklin with his 
lightning-rod revealed the secret of the air—it was 


HOW TO VIEW DEATH 29 


electricity. And with the growth of science we 
are discovering that what we long feared as our 
deadly foe was all along one of our greatest bene- 
factors. It only waited to be discovered and ap- 
propriated. Now it lights our homes, operates our 
factories, provides us transportation, brings us 
within speaking distance with the ends of the 
earth. In short it has revolutionized modern life. 
So, hidden beneath the bosom of death, there lies 
the world’s greatest boon. Jesus bids us probe . 
and find it. Then shall we view time and eternity 
with a new lens; then shall we interpret life in 
new terms; then shall the dirge of the night be- 
come the song of the morning; then shall we pla: > 
new values upon the things that live on foreve’. 
Then shall we discover that every tick of life on 
earth is but the winging of our flight towards the 
hands of the Father of us all. Then shall we see 
that what long has been the dread of the ages, is 
the greatest hidden glory. 

Jesus thus dispels this ignorance and shows us 
how to view death and approach it and enter it. 
Not as an adversary, but as a friend; not as mis- 
fortune, but as fortune; not as loss, but as gain; 
not as something to avoid, but something to se- 
cure; not as something to fear, but something to 
embrace; not as a journey into the night, but as 
a step out into the morning, into the Father’s 
house—into the Father’s arms. That’s why Jesus 
said—“ Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.” 


30 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


That’s why Paul said, he had “a desire to depart, 
and to be with Christ; which is far better.” 
That’s why the poet sang: 


“T know not where the islands lift 
Their fronded palms in ar; 
I only know I cannot drift 
Beyond His Love and care.” 


Death thus becomes a moral issue. It is not a 
question of, must I die, so much as, How shall I 
die? What is my attitude towards it? For as 
we have seen, death is not so much a physical 
necessity, as it is a moral obligation. It is not a 
natural phenomenon, so much as it Is a spiritual 
responsibility. Am I ready to undertake it? Do 
I approach it as I would any other moral and spir- 
itual duty? Do I deal with it as I do the Ten 
Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount? 
Does it impel my daily life as the regnant will of 
God that I should die well? That when death 
comes into my life I should deal with it as 
victor rather than as vanquished? That I should 
appropriate it rather than suffer it? In brief, do 
I regard death as an unseen master wheel whose 
silent turning brings me the best God can possibly 
produce? Changing the metaphor, is it not but 
the ripening of the soul’s fruit? A growth. Think 
of it, in the midst of life, we are all the while grow- 
ing death. 

Life is the blossom; death is the fruit. Death 


HOW TO VIEW DEATH 31 


lies hidden in the bosom of life. All life is poten- 
tially death. All life on earth is but the opening 
of the blade and the ripening of the grain. At 
death we reap the fruit of it all. Thus sowing 
death, we reap the fullness of life. 

This brings us to the point of asking, how are 
we growing this greatest of all fruits? There is 
no question about the reason why in death Jesus 
was able to say, “‘ Father, into Thy hands I com- 
mend My spirit.” It was this self-same attitude 
of soul He had maintained all through His daily 
life. As early as at twelve years of age did He 
not say, ‘‘ Wist ye not that I must be about my 
Father’s business?” Dying was still His Father’s 
business. Again, amid His daily duties He said, 
“My meat and My drink is to do the will of Him 
that sent Me.” And dying was still His meat 
and drink—the will of Him that gave Him earthly 
life. It was still His Father’s business and His 
very meat and drink to die when the Father’s hour 
of death for Him arrived. Yes,—there is no busi- 
ness in life so great and so heroic as dying. 

But men do not die at a certain moment and 
place. No. Death is not an act, it is a process. 
As someone put it long ago, ‘‘ As soon as we begin 
to live, we begin to die.” From the beginning, the 
womb of life is pregnant with the vitalities of 
death. Our pain and sorrow are but the birth- 
pangs of a new and higher life, which men, for lack 
of a better word, call death. 


32 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


Strangely thus do men speak of death as a pun- 
ishment or discipline to those left behind. It is 
neither. It is but the process of life taking its 
course. Men die as they live, regardless of those 
left behind, just as wheat grows wheat and thistle- - 
seed grows thistles regardless of all who have to 
do with it. Hence, how we are to die need not 
concern us, if each passing day we are but living 
as we ought. The mechanic who works well will 
finish his product well. The soldier who fights 
well will die well. So the man who lives well will 
die well. The man who lives like Christ will die 
like Him. You can’t live a sinner to-day and ex- 
pect to die like a saint to-morrow. Saints are not 
bred from sinners. We must line up our lives with 
the heart and will of God. God must become to 
us a Father. We must view all men as brothers. 
Death is the fulfillment of all earthly law, physical 
and moral and spiritual. But Jesus tells us to love 
God with all our being and our neighbour as our- 
selves, for thereon hang all the law and the proph- 
ets. Measure the moral features of Jesus and you 
have those of the Father. For said He, “ He that, 
hath seen me hath seen the Father.” If you want 
to arrive at the supreme glory of death, you must 
measure up to the Father’s will with the Master’s 
Spirit. Possess the mind of Jesus, and then death 
will become to you the outstretched arms of the 
Father, and all life on earth will be but the fore- 
gleam of that blessed ever approaching hour. 


HOW TO VIEW DEATH 33 


We, therefore, must see death in its larger cos- 
mic purpose. We must see that there is no death. 
That it is just another word for victory. We must 
see in it a world being redeemed unto God and the 
Prince of Peace. We must discern the link death 
occupies in the chain of God’s vast plans for the 
perfected life of His earthly family. 

Do your best and then, like the Master, commit 
yourself into the hands of the Father. Like true 
soldiers *mid shot and shell, endure your best, 
fight your best, then commit yourselves into the 
hands of the Father. That is what Jesus did. He 
had not where to lay His head, yet He struggled 
on amid foes on every hand. He faced betrayal, 
an unjust court, a dark garden and a cruel cross. 
He endured them, and having finished His work 
and done His best, He said, ‘“ Father, into Thy 
hands I commend My spirit.”” To you, brave sons 
of earth, He says, ‘‘ Follow Me and I will show 
you both how to live and how to die.” » And to 
you, dear soul at home in the shades of death,— 
just do your very best—trust all you can—endure 
all you can—and then commend yourself into the 
hands of the Father. That’s the Master’s way— 
let it be your way too. And to all whose hearts 
are heavy, just trust the triumphant love of Christ 
—just fight the good fight of faith, run well your 
course, follow the Master’s footsteps close, and 
then, like Him, commend yourself into the Father’s 


34 “THERE IS NO DEATH” - 


hands. Therein is found the master key that un- 
locks every door in God’s great House. 

The world never needed this twofold recipe 
more so than now—doing your best and calmly 
leaving the outcome in the hands of the Father. 
It was this that gave to Jesus the final victory. 
It is this that has.paved the upward way of 
civilization. It is this that wins in death, and all 
other struggles for the Kingdom of Heaven. It is 
this that will wipe away all tears and bind up all 
broken hearts. Think of it, Jesus had just said, 
“It is finished.” And only then could He say, 
Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.” 
So is it with us, we can never die till our work is 
finished; as David Livingstone said while in the 
shadow of death, “I am immortal till my work is 
done.” And our work is never finished till we 
have done our best. He never fails who does his 
best. In the eyes of God our work is always suc- 
cessfully done when we have done our best. Then 
the Father’s outstretched arms will await us and 
we shall die in the peace, in the comfort, and in the 
triumph of the Master of all life and death. And 
in His blessed death we shall find that after all 
there is no death, 


III 


WHY WE ARE SURE THERE IS A LIFE 
HEREAFTER 


“If a man die, shall he live again? ’’—Joxs 


14: 14. 


HE question asked in this text is as old 

as the human race. It always has been 

asked, and it always will be asked. It 

has never been absolutely answered, and possibly 

never will be on this earth. The question is 

deeply written in every human soul. And, some- 

how, at the bottom of our hearts we shall never 

rest till we find some sort of answer that satisfies. 

Many answers have been given, but few satisfy. 
Plato asked: 


“Whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, 
This longing for immortality?” 


And perhaps nothing is truer than the answer 
he gave to the waiting world: 


“°Tis the divinity that stirs within us; 
’Tis heaven itself, that points out the hereafter 
And intimates eternity to man.” 
35 


36 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 
Catching up a similar thought, Longfellow sang: 


“ And in the wreck of noble lives 
Something immortal still survives.” 


No soul has ever returned to tell us whether 
there be a future world. Not a whisper to tell the 
story of what takes place when we leave behind 
us the things of time. If, for one moment, some 
one were to return, a world of truth would be re- 
vealed, and this old earth never would be the same 
again. It seems to me that the revelation of such 
a moment would in a night transform the universe. 
Perhaps Tennyson had this in mind when he wrote: 


“ Ah, Christ, if it were possible 
For one short hour to see 
The souls we loved, that they might tell us 
Where and what they be.” 


However, there are many finger-posts that 
point toward the goal of immortality. There 
is the finger-post of our deepest zmtuition. Some- 
how, far below the category of reason there comes 
a voice from the deep of the human soul that whis- 
pers, “If a man die, he shall live again.” No 
matter what the doubt, this voice speaks louder 
than all else. There is the sceptic who in the mo- 
ment of his prosperity says within himself, ‘‘ There 
is no hereafter.”” But one day some dear one of 
his home is taken from him. And at the mouth 

of the open grave his logic that said “ there is no 


THERE IS A LIFE HEREAFTER 37 


hereafter ” has gone to the winds, and his deeper 
intuition cries, “‘ 1 shall surely meet my darling 
one again!” There may have been these doubts 
in the mind of the great naturalist, Thomas Hux- 
ley, but it is said of him that a few days after the 
body of his precious child was laid away he wrote 
to Charles Kingsley: ‘‘ As I stood beside the coffin 
of my little son the other day with mind bent on 
anything but disputation the . . . minister read 

‘If the dead rise not again, let us eat and 
drink, for to-morrow we die.’ I cannot tell you 
how inexpressibly this shocked me . . . Why, 
the very apes know better.” 

Another finger-post that points to a future life 
is the question of achievement. Man’s reason 
asks, ‘‘ How is it possible that all the achievements 
of the ages should in a moment be snuffed out like 
a candie forever. It has taken millions of years 
to bring man to the high state of wondrous faculty 
that he now possesses. How, then, could it be pos- 
sible that in a moment this greatest achievement 
of the ages should be snuffed out forever?” It 
seems impossible to conceive it. 

Another finger-post is the call for future justice 
and reward. If there be no future life, then un- 
numbered injustices have been committed upon 
the sons of men, for which there never will be the 
slightest recourse. Numberless sacrifices will go 
unrecognized. The one hundred thousand inno- 
cent women slain in the days of witchcraft will go 


38 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


unrewarded. The fifty million martyrs who since 
the birth of Christ gave their lives for truth and 
liberty will go forever uncompensated. The debt 
we owe the noble heroes who gave their blood in 
ten thousand wars will go forever unpaid. In all 
the light of reason, this surely cannot be so. 
These must be rewarded somewhere in the Great 
Beyond. If not, then in the words of one of our 
great writers: ‘Considering the immense and 
protracted sorrows of mankind, it would have been 
better if the earth had remained like a moon, a 
mass of slag, idle and without a tenant.” It would 
thus seem to us the poet was right when he sang 
concerning the death of the Duke of Wellington: 


“We doubt not that for one so true, 
There must be other noble work to do 
Than when he fought at Waterloo.” 


Another finger-post that points to a hereafter is 
that of moral necessity. What would become of 
this world to-morrow if men everywhere believed 
no more in the hereafter. The answer is not far 
to find. Paul declared, ‘“‘ If the dead rise not, let 


¥ us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” In other 


words, let us enjoy ourselves to the full at what- 
ever cost to-day, for it will make no difference 
to-morrow, for there really is no to-morrow. 

Martin Luther spoke out in no uncertain terms 
when he said: “If you believe in no future life, _- 
~ I would not give a mushroom for your God. Do, 


THERE IS A LIFE HEREAFTER 39 


then, as you like! For if no God, so no devil and 
nohell. . . . Thenplungeinto . . . rascality, 
robbery and murder.” 

Well do I remember the celebrated Goldwin 
Smith. He was the arch-sceptic of my college 
days. He openly denied a Future Life. And yet 
in an essay published in the North American Re- 
view (1904) he frankly expressed his fear that 
should people everywhere believe that there were 
no immortality the very soul of public-mindedness 
would die, and that the very roots of democracy 
would perish. Thus immortality is a moral neces- 
sity. 

The difficulty with most people who doubt the 
Future Life is that they are going altogether on 
what their senses reveal. They are banking en- 
tirely on physical appearances. They see a child 
grow to manhood, and on to old age with all its 
infirmity, and finally go down to the grave. And 
it seems from all appearances that is the end. 
They do not remember that the least of all reality 
is found in appearances and that appearances are 
at best most deceiving. In the autumn we see 
the leaves falling and soon the tree is bare. To 
every appearance it is dead. To every appear- 
ance the leaves are dead. But wait. With the 
coming of the spring the tree bursts forth in all 
the glory of its hidden life. The unnumbered 
leaves that seemed dead are caught up into num- 
berless new forms of blossom and beauty. 


40 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


The earth looks as if it were flat. And for ages 
men believed that it was so. For, to all appear- 
ances it is flat. But, in fact, it is round. To all 
appearances the earth is standing still. But, in 
fact, it is moving more than a thousand miles a 
minute. The sun looks as if it rises in the east, 
moves across the sky and sets in the west. But 
it does not. We puta stick in the water. To all 
appearances it is crooked. But it is not. Go into 
a room painted white. Put before one of your 
eyes a blue glass and before the other a yellow 
glass. You will see everything green. But it 
isn’t. It is still white. You will sense everything 
green, but in fact everything is white. A few 
years ago a seed was taken from a Roman ruin. 
It had been buried nearly two thousand years. To 
all appearances it was dead. But soon after it 
was planted and exposed to light and warmth, 
something within it, which no man knows, burst 
from its dead prison and became a flower of 
beauty and fragrance. 

No; appearances form no argument whatever 
against believing in a Future Life. Scientists are 
among the first to acknowledge this. John Fiske, 
foremost among American evolutionists, declared, 
“The . . . assumption that the life of the soul 
ends with the life of the body, is perhaps the most 
colossal instance of baseless assumption that is 
known to the history of philosophy.” 

With all obstructions removed, let us then fol- 


THERE IS A LIFE HEREAFTER 41 


low the direction in which these finger-posts point. 
That is what the leaders of civilization have done. 
And as a result, we are in the glory of modern dis- 
covery. Newton saw an apple falling to the 
ground, and followed it till he discovered the great 
law of gravitation. James Watt followed the 
steam bursting from his kettle, and it led to the 
discovery of steam power. Benjamin Franklin 
followed the spark from the air on the banks of 
the Schuylkill, and finally discovered electricity. 
Graham Bell followed the sound that he heard 
Over a wire, and soon after invented the telephone. 
Marconi followed metered sounds across a little 
space, and to-day we have the radiograph. 

So, let us follow the finger-posts that point us 
to a Future Life. This is the practical thing to do. 
It is what most of the great men of the ages have 
done and they discovered immortality. It was 
what Plato, the greatest mind in Greece, did. It 
was what Kant, the greatest philosopher of mod- 
ern times, did. It was what Augustine and 
Shakespeare and Browning, and the other greatest 
minds of Europe did. It was what Washington 
and Edwards and Emerson, and the greatest 
minds of America ever since have done. It was 
what the prophets and the apostles did. And, 
most of all, it was what Jesus did, the greatest of 
all minds of all ages. 

“Then, if a man die shall he live again?” 
Thus far, our answer is ‘“‘ We do not know,” but 


AQ “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


we do know that every wind blows that way. That 
every highway leads that way. That every finger- 
post points that way. And so one of our great 
modern poets, following in this direction, writes: 


“ There is no death, there are no dead, 
From zone to zone, from sphere to sphere. 
The souls of all who pass from here 
Along eternal paths are led. 
Across unatlased worlds of space 
Each journeys to his rightful place. 
For, greater truth no man has said, 
There is no death, there are no dead.” 


Thus far, it seems to us at least a probability 
that there is a Future Life. To many enthusiasts, 
this is all they wish. With this probability they 
are satisfied. But to others, such a possibility, or 
even a probability, of a Future Life is not satis- 
fying. ‘They demand something more positive. 
They tell us that too much is at stake to risk their 
eternity on a mere probability. So they want more 
solid ground on which to rest. Ground on which 
they can begin to live and practice now for a great 
Endless Day that is to come. 

This sure ground some find in spiritualism. To 
this number belong minds no less than Sir William 
Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge and Sir Arthur Conan. 
Doyle. They point out to us how Jesus appeared 
to His disciples after His death, and how Moses 
and Isaiah appeared to Jesus and His disciples at 


THERE IS A LIFE HEREAFTER 48 


the transfiguration. And they tell us that beyond 
a doubt they have communed with the departed. 
Many who are not spiritualists are satisfied with 
the mere statements of the Bzble that there is a 
hereafter. They claim that the Bible clearly 
teaches it, and that our creeds distinctly express it. 
But to many this is not satisfying. They want 
something more than the authority of a book or a 
creed. I am quite ready to accept the doctrine 
of immortality because it is taught in the Scrip- 
tures. But I well remember when as a lad [ lis- 
tened to the minister preaching about the here- 
after. And, after he was through proving from the 
Bible what he believed, I asked myself the ques- 
tion, ‘‘ What if the Bible isn’t true?” So, ever 
since that time, I have found myself delving into 
the facts of the universe to prove that the Bible is 
true. Indeed we find the sacred word saying, 
“Have a reason for the hope that is in you.” It 
is just that reason that I want to find and that 
multitudes of others want. And this reason we 
find abundantly supplied in the facts of observa- 
tion and experience in the universe about us. In 
my college days one of our professors frequently 
said to us, “‘ The Bible is all the truth you need. 
Keep within its covers. You need nothing beyond 
it. And if a man denies the Bible, talk no longer 
with him.” But that day is past. We hold the 
Bible more than ever to be the word of God. But 
we hold that God is also revealing Himself in the 


44, “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


great handiwork of His universe. So, let us look 
at His universe to see whether we may not find 
there as well a most conclusive evidence that there 
is a hereafter. 

First of all, let us note that the universe 
throughout is ordered, uniform and law-abiding. 
That the same laws hold from beginning to end. 
And let us also observe that while this is true, we 
cannot actually prove that it is true. We only find 
that it holds true where we find any part of the 
universe at work. This means that all natural 
science is based on faith in what seems to be a 
positive certainty. Scientists everywhere agree 
that while they have no apodictic certainty that 
rational law and order reigns in the universe, they 
have every positive faith and assurance that it 
does. We hear the great English scientist, Thomas 
Huxley, saying: “That the cosmic order is ra- 
tional, and the fazthk that, throughout all duration, 
unbroken order has reigned in the universe, I not 
only accept it, but I am disposed to think it the 
most important of all truths.” 

For example, take gravitation. Science holds 
that it is a force that always attracts masses ac- 
cording to a definite law. But we cannot prove 
that this is true. We can only prove that it holds 
wherever masses have been seen to come into cer- 
tain relations each to the other. And yet, we ac- 
cept it as an actual, positive law of the universe. 
It is largely a matter of faith based upon observed 


THERE IS A LIFE HEREAFTER 465 


facts. No one knew there was to be an eclipse of 
the sun last year, but we all believed that it would 
take place. And we believed this because we be- 
lieved in the uniformity and continuity of the laws 
of nature. And therefore we believed beyond a 
doubt that the moon would intercept the sun at a 
certain moment in this part of the world, as it did 
one hundred and nineteen years before. And with. , 
the same faith we believe that after a like period 
it will do so again. We have seen the elements 
act in obedience to certain chemical forces. Under 
similar circumstances they have always acted thus 
so far as we have observed. We do not know that 
they always will act thus. But beyond a doubt we 
believe that they will. So in the world of nature 
about us our knowledge is built up on well-founded 
abiding faith. And each particular faith rests 
upon the broader and deeper belief that all the uni- 
verse is built upon and conditioned by a mental 
order at once rational and intelligent throughout. 
It is only a step further to say that a doctrine 
necessary to interpret and account for the intelli- 
gence, rationale and ordered totality of the uni- 
verse must be held as irue. Charles Darwin de- 
clared that “if we consider the whole universe, the 
mind refuses to look at it as the outcome of 
chance.” This means the universe was conceived 
and created according to an ordered intelligence. 
It has at its basis an intelligent purpose and an 
intelligent means for realizing that purpose. Look- 


46 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


ing at the one hundred and fifty parts In my 
watch, I see nothing in each part by itself to indi- 
cate any particular plan or mentality behind it. 
But when I look at the parts as they are fitted one 
into the other, and as I see the hands following 
the sun across the sky, I am bound to conclude 
that an intelligent maker designed and made the 
watch. I have no discretion; I am bound to be- 
lieve it. Every turn in the pathway of my men- 
tality demands it. 

So it is with the world. A great mental process 
has been at work carrying out a vast intelligent 
plan. The onward and upward march of civiliza- 
tion has been but the discovery of this plan. It 
has been but the finding out of the mind of the 
Creator. So, as Kepler looks through his tele- 


“scope, he cries, ““O God, I think Thy thoughts 


after Thee.” Down the ages every inventor or dis- 
coverer has been but the pathfinder who has some- 
how found out a bit of God’s blue-print. He has 
but discovered a bit of God’s mind that undergirds 
and permeates the universe. That is why every 
true preacher or teacher gives but a glimpse of the 
mind of God, as it manifests itself in and through 
the souls of men. That is why President Coolidge 
in his Inaugural Address declared that the funda- 
mental need of these United States was a spiritual 
one. What was this but to say that our greatest 
need is to know the mind of God and to follow it. 
For therein lie our security, our progress and our 


THERE IS A LIFE HEREAFTER 47 


destiny. That’s why the President closed his 
memorable address with the fitting climax that the _ 
greatest concern of the American people must be 
not to please ourselves, or others, but Almighty | 
God. Underneath all this is the assumption that 
all doctrines are true which fit in with and are 
necessary for the maintenance of the intelligent 
order and progress of the world. 

Science, therefore, starts with the assumption 
that the universe is rationally founded and sus- 
tained and that all beliefs are true which are neces- 
sary to interpret and maintain this intelligent or- 
derliness. For example, the doctrine of evolution 
is necessary, says science. Therefore, it is held as 
scientifically true. Likewise the doctrine of gravi- 
tation. Likewise the doctrine of the conservation 
of energy, and likewise every other scientific doc- 
trine. But not one of these doctrines can be ab- 
solutely and mathematically proved. Every one 
of them is a declaration of faith based upon ob- . 
served phenomena, because such doctrines are 
found necessary to fit in with and sustain the in- 
telligent order of the universe. Natural science, 
therefore, must and does go beyond the facts it 
observes, just as in the doctrines of morals and 
religion. ‘To quote again, Huxley wrote: “He 
who does not go beyond the facts will seldom get 
as far as the facts.”” Was it not the great sceptic 
scientist, Haeckel, who declared, ‘‘ Scientific faith 
fills the gaps in our knowledge of natural laws with 


48 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


temporary hypothesis.” So natural science is built 
up on faith, as Tennyson put it, “ Believing where 
we cannot prove.” 

Exactly so is it with Religion, ‘The existence 
of God and the existence of a Future Life we can- 
not prove. But God and a Future Life are as 
necessary to explain and maintain the rational 
order of the universe as are Gravitation or the 
Conservation of Energy. Take away God and the 
Future Life and the scientific orderliness of the 
world falls to pieces. J. Arthur Thomson, the 
world renowned scientist, says that in the last anal- 
ysis in all scientific research we must finally fall 
back on God. So is it with immortality. With- 
out immortality there is little explanation to the 
moral order of the universe. As Gravitation is 
necessary to explain the ordered course of the 
stars and planets, it is regarded as scientifically 
true. In like manner belief in the future life is 
absolutely necessary to account for the moral 
basis and purpose of the universe. It is, there- 
fore, scientifically true. I am, therefore, just as 
sure there is a hereafter as that there is a law of 
gravitation. For this reason I am just as sure 
that I am going to live again, after I leave this 
world, as I am sure that the morning dawn will 
break again to-morrow and that in a little more 
than another century the moon will again eclipse 
the sun in this part of the world. 

So we are bound to accept a Hereafter to ex- 


THERE IS A LIFE HEREAFTER 49 


plain the Present. That is why the Bible takes it 
for granted as a primary and necessary truth. So 
we hear the psalmist in his prayer, “I shall be 
satisfied when I awake in His likeness.” And cen- 
turies later we hear the great apostle to the Gen- 
tiles crying out to the world, “ This corruptible 
must put on incorruption.” In other words, man, 
to complete his Present Life, must go on to a 
Future Life. Every fibre of his being declares this 
necessity of his immortality. And in these later 
days natural science has become so charged with 
this mental, moral and spiritual necessity it also 
cries aloud with the apostle, “This mortal must 
put on immortality.” Every star, every flower, 
every grain of wheat, every running brook, every 
atom spells this necessity in letters as large as the 
universe itself. It is so basic to all human des- 
tiny that Jesus seemed to regard it as axiomatic. 
For we hear Him say, ‘‘ In My Father’s house are 
many rooms: if it were not so I would have told 
you.” To Him it was so axiomatic and self- 
evident that He did not deem it necessary even 
to declare it. 

And yet we cannot prove with mathematical 
certainty that there is a Future Life. Neither can 
science so prove any of its doctrines. But it is 
sufficient to know that belief in a Future Life is 
just as necessary to maintain the intelligent order 
of the world as a belief in any of the scientific doc- 
trines. For this reason the doctrine of immortal- 


50 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


ity is scientifically true. For only in it can the 
rationale of the present life be understood. And 
as in science it is a faith based on facts of ob- 
servation. As the President of the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology once declared, “ Science 
is grounded on faith as is religion.” And, as wrote 
one of the keenest scientific minds of modern days, 
‘“‘ By the same processes that we declare the truth 
about all stars and rocks and flowers, so do we 
declare the truth of immortality.” 

We may not know where the Future Life is or 
what it is. But we do know that it is. We are 
sure of that. A traveller in Switzerland once 
asked a boy the way to Kandersteg. The boy did 
not know, but he gave an answer that exactly fits 
our thought. He replied, “I do not know, sir, 
where Kandersteg is, but there is the road to it.” 
You ask me where the Hereafter is, and I answer 
you, ‘I do not know, sir, where the Hereafter is, 
but there is the road to it.” This was practically 
the answer that Immanuel Kant made. He de- 
clared that all the categories of human thinking 
required that there be a future world, and that 
without it all mental processes are incomplete. He 
and a thousand other philosophers have therefore 
regarded the doctrine of immortality as philo- 
sophically true. Jesus looked upon death as but 
one of the higher processes of nature. You re- 
member how, with almost rebuke He said to 
doubting minds, “‘ Except a grain of wheat fall 


THERE IS A LIFE HEREAFTER 51 


into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if 
it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” To Him 
death was but change into a form of larger, fuller 
life. To Him the Future Life held the consum- 
mation, the goal, of all the processes of human 
development begun on earth. To Him man was 
not made to die, but to live ever ‘‘ more abun- 
dantly.” So sang Tennyson: 


“Thou wilt not leave us in the dust; 
Thou madest man, he knows not why, 
He thinks he was not made to die; 
And thou hast made him: thou art just.” 


Yes, God has a return schedule for every one of 
us. We are here but “ for a little while.” And 
then back again to Him who for a day gave us to 
the earth. As Edgar A. Guest chanted about 
James Whitcomb Riley, when the great poet of 
childhood passed into his future life: 


“The world was gettin’ dreary, there was too much 

| sigh and frown 

In this vale o mortal strivin’, so God sent Jim Riley 
down, 

Aw he said: ‘Go there an’ cheer ’em in a good old- 
fashioned way, 

With your songs of tender sweetness: but don’t make 
your plans to stay, 

Coz yow’re needed up in Heaven. I amlendin’ you to 
men 

Just to help ’em with your music, but I'll want you 
back again.” 


52 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


Jesus saw that the human soul could never be 
complete till it realized its immortality. And this 
is the way science has reasoned and made its great 
discoveries down the ages. You will recall per- 
haps that in the study of the heavens scientists dis- 
covered certain irregularities in the orbit of Ura- 
nus. They could see no cause for it. But the 
disturbance was there. They knew there must be 
some cause for it. Le Verrier declared there must 
be a planet to account for it, and that the planet 
must be of a certain size and in a certain position. 
He was sure the planet was there, though he never 
saw it. But everything pointed that way. Fol- 
lowing this lead he finally discovered Neptune, al- 
most the exact size and position as he had be- 
lieved. The same is true of Halley’s comet. By 
the same hypothesis, and following similar finger 
points, Halley discovered the comet that bears his 
name. So is it with all atoms. No one has ever 
seen an atom, but everything points to a certainty 
that there are atoms. And no one has seen elec- 
trons and protons, but with a certainty every indi- 
cation points to their existence. So do we base 
upon these our ultimate theories of matter and 
energy. Electrons and protons must exist to ac- 
count for certain phenomena in the order of the 
material universe. Without them there would be 
no explanation to several aspects of matter and 
energy. So scientific belief in their existence is 
clearly necessary. 


THERE IS A LIFE HEREAFTER = 53 


So in the soul there is at times a deep disturb- 
ance—a far call, a sorrow cry, a mystic phenome- 
non, that only ¢mmortality can explain: 


“A solemn murmur in its soul 
Tells of the world to be, 
As travelers hear the billows roll, 
Before they reach the sea.” 


Ah yes, some would go further and say that we 
even catch a glimpse of that far ocean tide within 
the human soul. And so Wordsworth sang, 


“Though inland far we be, 
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea 
Which brought us hither.” 


And so, as from step to step we follow all along 
the winding way of thought, we find ourselves ut- 
terly unable to believe for even a moment that if 
a man die he shall not live again. Even Charles 
Darwin declares: “It is an intolerable thought 
that man and all other sentient beings are doomed 
to complete annihilation, after such long continued 
slow progress.” Thus, to say that man shall not 
live again is an “intolerable thought.” It must 
be ruled out of order. For by all that is neces- 
sary to faith and reason “ this morial must put on 
immortality.” 

This is why Jesus never recognized death. 
When He went into the presence of the young 
maiden, He said, ‘‘ She is not dead.” This is why 


54 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


Paul did not speak of dying but of desiring “ to 
depart and be with Christ.” That is why Long- 
fellow, our keen-visioned poet, sang, 


“ There is no death—what seems so is transition.” 


That is why Socrates, that great sage of ancient 
Greece, vowed that, ‘‘ Beyond question the soul 
is immortal and imperishable and will truly exist 
in another world.” 

Then what of our Hereafter? What is it to be? 
Largely, in a word, it will be what we are now 
making it. For each man has already entered into 
his immortality. Every moment we are putting on 
our immortality. One of the world’s great paint- 
ers was once asked why he was painting with such 
care. From his lips fell the pregnant answer, “I 
am painting for Eternity.” Every hour of our 
to-day and to-morrow is struck through with eter- 
nity. Every act is ladened with immortality. On 
every page of time we are writing the volume of 
our ageless future. So, then, act well thy brief 
to-day, for in its every moment thou dost face the 
endless to-morrow and thine immortal self. Then 
with the Psalmist let us ever pray: ‘‘ Search me, 
O God, and try me, and see whether there be any 
wicked way in me, and lead me into the way 
everlasting.” 


IV 
WHY THERE MUST BE A HEREAFTER 


“ He is not here: for He 1s risen.’—MATTHEW 
28: 6. 


OME day, some of you may read in the 
newspapers that ‘‘ Dr. MacAlpine is dead.” 


But the statement will not be true and you 
may just say of me then, as the angel said of 
Jesus,—*‘ He is not here; for He is risen.” And, 
if any one asks you to prove your statement, just 
ask him to prove to you that two plus two equals 
four, or that one plus one equals two. No one 
has ever yet been able to prove this. Still we go 
on building up our mathematics and finances upon 
the belief that these propositions are true. Or tell 
him to prove to you that atoms or electrons or 
matter itself exist. If he can do one of these, he 
will be the first man that ever did it. Yet all the 
while we are building up our sciences, and indeed 
all earthly life itself, on the belief that these things 
do actually exist. And so yourcan take him along 
the entire line of knowledge. All he can truth- 
fully say is that everything points to the truth of 
these propositions. 


Of course, neither can you prove to your friend 
55 


56 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


that I shall still be alive. But to your doubting 
neighbour you can say that everything points to 
the truth of your contention that I am still living. 
And he has no counter argument. 

Tell him that the Bzble, when followed, has al- 
ways led the human race into the ways of success. 
That wherever it has been unheeded, men have 
failed. That it has withstood the storms of the 
ages, while peoples and empires have flourished 
and passed into oblivion. And what says this un- 
failing guide to life about living hereafter? Here 
are some of its declarations: 


“I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that . 
after my skin worms destroy this body, yet 
shall I see God.” 

“God will redeem my soul from the power of the 
grave: for He shall receive me.” 

“Thy dead men live, together . . . shall they 
rise.” 

“ Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth 
shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to 
shame.” 


“TI will redeem them from death . . - O grave, 
I will be thy destruction.” 
“Jesus answered .. . im the resurrection they 


neither marry nor are given in marriage.” 

“The graves were opened; and many bodies of the 
saints that slept arose.” 

“Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of 
the just.” 


WHY THERE MUST BE A HEREAFTER 57 


“ Jesus said unto her, ‘I am the Resurrection, and 
the Life; he that believeth in Me, though he were 
dead, yet shall he live.” 

“ And I will raise him up at the last day.” 

“ So also is the resurrection of the dead . . . tt 
is sown a natural body; and tt is raised a spiritual 
body.” 


And so we might go on for an hour quoting the 
Scriptures concerning the fact of a future life. It 
runs like a golden chord from Genesis to Revela- 
tion. 

But not only is the Bible full of the resurrec- 
tion, it occupies a foremost place in the minds of 
the great writers of literature. Here are just a few 
of them: 

In one of his Sonnets, Matthew Arnold says: 


“No, No. The energy of life may be 
Kept on after the grave, but not begun; 
And he who flagg’d not in the earthly strife, 
His soul well-kunit, and all his battles won, 
Mounts, and that hardly, to eternal life.’ 


In his Resignation Longfellow wrote: 


“ Safe from temptation, safe from sin’s pollution, 
She lives, whom we call dead.’ 


In his Mary Marston George MacDonald de- 
clared, what has been deep-seated in the breast of 
man ever since first he placed his foot upon this 
earth: 


58 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


“TI came from God, and I’m going back to God, 
and I wont have any gaps of death in the middle of 
my life.’ 


In Paradise Lost, Milton sang: 


“ They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet 
Quatf immortality and joy.” 


You recall those touching lines of Tennyson in 
Maud— 


“Ah, Christ, that it were possible, 
In one short hour to see 
The souls we loved, that they might tell us 
What and where they be.” 


And Wordsworth’s vivid picture: 


“ Though inland far we be, 
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea 
Which brought us hither.” 


A thousand more we might quote. 

And not only have Christian people thus be- 
lieved in a future life. It has been the faith of 
all races, peoples, and tongues since the first dawn 
of human life on earth. Listen to that greatest 
poet of ancient Greece in his /liad— 


“°Tis true; tis certain; man though dead retains 
Part of himself ; the immortal mind remains.” 


Modern Archeology has unearthed for us abun- 
dant evidence of this universal belief that there is 


WHY THERE MUST BE A HEREAFTER 59 


a life beyond. In the British Museum I looked 
into a sarcophagus nearly four thousand years old. 
It contained a well-preserved body, while its 
finger pointed to inscriptions on the wall. These 
were records of the good deeds done by the person 
while on this earth. And this person was thus 
represented as showing the divinities of the future 
life his grounds for reward. As far back as the 
primitive Neoliths, we see ornaments, weapons, 
tools and food buried with the dead, for their use, 
when they awoke at some future resurrection. 
This belief, of course, took on various forms. 
One of the most prevalent of these was the belief 
that death was but a long sleep. And that some- 
time in the far-distant future man would rise from 
it. This prevailed in Greece: so do we have our 
word “cemetery,” which is a pure Greek word 
meaning ‘‘ sleeping-place.” The ancient Egyptians 
seemed to have held the same belief. And so we 
find gorgeous tombs in which their kings and great 
men were laid to “sleep.” There they were sur- 
rounded with all they would need when they 
“awoke” from their long sleep. King Tut was 
likely one of them. No one knows from what 
human root our American Indians have come. But 
their pagan custom was to provide for their dead. 
Many an Indian mound did I see when I was a 
lad. And when: these were opened they contained 
the bones of the deceased, a pipe, tobacco, matches, 


60 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


a tomahawk, and other utensils, ready for him 
when he awoke in his happy hunting ground. 

So do we see this belief covering the earth, 
India, Persia, Babylonia, Assyria, the Iranians, 
the yellow peoples of China and Japan, the black 
races of Africa—all building their hopes on a 
hereafter. . 

And why? Why has all mankind believed in a 
future life? No one knows. The answer is found 
down in the deep of every soul. ‘There it lies 
beyond the ken of mortal reason. No logic can 
fathom it. It belongs to the intuition of the soul. 
There, says Henri Bergson, lies the reality of all 
human life—down in the fathomless deep of a 
man’s intuition. I don’t know why I should be © 
honest, or why I should tell the truth. But some- 
thing beyond all reasoning tells me and everyone 
else that we should and must be honest and truth- 
ful. Just so something down in the transcendent 
deep of my soul and every other soul tells us, 
“ There is a life beyond.” 

And the world can’t get away from it. It seems 
to be so vital that it is axiomatic and foundational 
to all human life, to such an extent that it cannot 
be explained or proven. There it is, the deepest 
and highest and broadest fact that should shape 
and colour every act we do on earth. 

Did I say a fact? Yes. Well, what is a fact? 
It is a condition that we are forced from circum- 
stances to accept as true. That’s all we can say 


WHY THERE MUST BE A HEREAFTER 61 


about any fact. So is it regarding immortality. 
We are forced to accept it. Some force within 
compels us so to do. Every argument lands us at 
the gateway of a future life. 

Take the argument of Beimg. Metaphysicians 
cannot account for the simple element of experi- 
ence without a life hereafter. Kant proved that 
conclusively. Scientists the same. Read them all 
the way from Alger’s Doctrine of a Future Life 
to Elbe’s Future Life in the Light of Ancient Wis- 
dom and Modern Science. And here is their sum- 
mary—‘ That man will live forever in other forms 
of physical organization and of consciousness may 
therefore be regarded as exceedingly probable.” 

What a change. Yes—there was a day when 
natural scientists were busy trying to prove there 
was no God and no hereafter. But to-day they 
are busy trying to prove to us there must be a God 
and a World Beyond. What a galaxy of them 
there are: Drummond, Lodge, Flammarion, Sir 
J. J. Thomson, Prof. J. Arthur Thomson, and a 
thousand others. 

Then there is the argument of desire and its 
supply. With one hand on this earth my other 
hand reaches out and touches a world to come. 
And I cannot help doing it. Why? Well—it is 
the principle that I see everywhere on earth—that 
where there is a hook, there is an eye; that where 
I see a wheel with cogs in it, I am sure there is a 
wheel somewhere that fits into it; I am hungry, 


62 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


and food is provided to satisfy my hunger; I long 
for love, and it too is provided through my dear 
ones; I crave rest, and sweet sleep brings it to me; 
I love harmony, and music fills my breast. And, 
so on, all the way through life—a want, a longing, 
ts felt, and it is supplied. So has the world all 
down the ages wanted and longed for immortality. 
The breaking heart of that mother at the open 
grave yearns to meet again her precious child. 
Will her yearning heart be satisfied some day? 
All nature and all reason answers “ Yes.” Addi- 
son in his Cato answered for every throbbing 
heart— 


“Tt must be so—FPlato, thou reasonest well! 
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, 
This longing after immortality? 
Tis the divimty that stirs within us; 
Tis heaven itself, that points out an hereafter, 
And intimates eternity to man.” 


Further, common justice and order call for a 
future life. Every day we see the faithful 
wronged. We see right trampled under foot. We 
see the just ill-treated. We see the innocent suffer 
for the guilty. We see the weak fall, crushed by 
the burden for which they were not in the least 
responsible. And we cry out, “ In the name of all 
that is fair and true, there must be a world beyond, 
where all wrongs will be righted and where all 


WHY THERE MUST BE A HEREAFTER 63 


faithfulness will be rewarded.” If there isn’t, then 
all reason, all sense of right, count for naught. 
And there can be no God. If there is, he is a 
cruel monster. And law and order, truth and 
right, have no place in the universe of men. And 
all life is but a dream, and things are not what 
they seem. As breathed a soldier in the World 
War: 


“Tf it be all for naught, for nothingness 

At last, why does God make the world so fair? 
Why spill this golden splendour out across 

The western hills, and light the silver lamps 

Of eve? Why give me eyes to see, and soul 

To love so strong and deep? Then, with a pang 
This brightness stabs me through, and wakes within 
Rebellious voice to cry against all death? 

Why set this hunger for eternity 

To gnaw my heart-string through, if death ends all? 
If death ends life, then evil must be good, 

Wrong must be right, and beauty ugliness. 

God is a Judas who betrays His Son, 

And with a kiss, damns all the world to hell, 

If Christ rose not again. 


Thus are we compelled to accept immortality 
as one of the most necessary facts of all the Uni- 
verse. It is one of the cornerstones of human na- 
ture. It is one of the axioms on which religion 
was built. It holds the key to the final goal and 
meaning of human existence on earth. That’s 


64 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


why the angel said, “ He is not here, He is risen.” 
That’s why Easter is the most exalted season of 
all the year. It symbolizes Nature at her best— 
her biggest step toward perfection. ‘That’s why 
every faithful Christ-like person rejoices in the 
message that it brings concerning the dear one who 
has answered the Call— He is not here: for He 
is risen.” And that’s why, on the day I leave this 
earth, my friends and all the world can say, “ He 
is not dead: for he is risen.” Tell them: 


“Tl go laughing in my heart; I know 

There is no death, ’tis but phantom fear 

That leads the soul away from God. 

Christ lives, and round the living Christ new worlds 
Are born and live in light, new triumph songs 

Make music ’mid the silent stars, and swell 

Like ocean's thunder on a pounding shore, 

Life! Life Beyond! For Christ lives evermore!” 


Then let us all gird well our loins. And let us 
to our earthly task be true. Every day let us fol- 
low close to Him who holds in the hollow of His 
hand the secret glory of all our lives in God’s great 
to-morrow. And let us so order all our words that 
they may be true, all our deeds that they may be 
kind, and all our thoughts that they may be pure. 
All along the way of earth wherever we may be, 
ere it be too late, let us scatter the blessed seed of 
loving service—“ for our reaping bye and bye,” 

The secret meaning of the Future Life is an 


WHY THERE MUST BE A HEREAFTER 65 


Open Book to Him who said, “J am the Resurrec- 
tion and the Life.’ His face is transfigured with 
its glory. His garments glisten with its beauty. 
In the hollow of His hand He holds the Master 
Key to all its blessed mystery. And down through 
ail the years He waits to share His Resurrection 
Life. With His Cup of Endless Life He waits to 
fulfill the immortality of all the human world. 
Fresh with the dew of love upon His hand, He 
waits to wipe away all tears, to bind up all aching 
hearts, and to bring all men into His Eternal 
Realm, where life is the light of day, and where 
there is no death. Hear then His silent call. Hear 
it from the deep in your own immortal breast. It 
is the call of the Resurrection and the Life hidden 
in every soul. Hear it, and, hearing, follow Him, 
“whom to know is Life Eternal.” 


V 
WINNING THE WAITING CROWN 


“For I am now ready to be offered, and the 
time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a 
good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept 
my faith; henceforth there 1s laid up for me a 
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
righteous judge, shall give me that day; and not 
to me only, but unto all them also that love his 
appearing.’—\I Trmotuy 4: 6-8. 


HERE is a pathos in most parting words. 
Especially if they are the words of final 
parting. This is the final message of 
Paul to Timothy. The great apostle is white with 
age and toil and pain. He is in a lonely dungeon 
in Rome. His earthly work is done. His perse- 
cutions are nearing an end. The dew of death is 
gathering upon his brow. Soon he must lay down 
the tool of his life-work. Soon he must bid fare- 
well to all the scenes of earth, especially to 
Timothy, his life’s companion. Soon he must step 
out into the Great Beyond. 
But he is ready. Like a good soldier, he is pre- 
pared to answer God’s final call. And so he is 
not cast down. His hour of going out is at hand. 


It is all but here. So he whispers, “ I am ready 
66 


i i 


WINNING THE WAITING CROWN 67 


to be offered and the time of my departure is 
come.” Not the slightest fear. Not a sign of 
hesitation. With simple courage he faces the hid- 
den inevitable future. And while his breath flick- 
ers, he toils on. The end to him is but a turn on 
the way. As calmly as he had all his life prepared 
for nightly sleep, so in his prison does he await the 
hour of his going. 

History has oft repeated this quiet self-posses- 
sion of the great apostle. Do you remember the 
instance of Captain Scott in the Antarctic soli- 
tudes? Death was close on his trail. The world 
was thrilled to know how he faced the end. “ We 
did intend to finish ourselves when things proved 
like this, but,” he continued, “‘ we have decided to 
die naturally in the track.” Noble heroism! It 
was in just this fine, undaunted spirit that most of 
the soldiers in the recent war faced the shadowed 
vale of death. But there is a tang about this 
declaration of Paul that mounts up above all other 
experiences of most men. 

And so we are led to ask, what was the secret 
of the apostle’s serene triumph in the hour of 
death? The answer is seen in the marvellous 
statement of our text. 

Notice first, he does not seem to recognize death 
as the ages have looked upon it. To him it is but 
a “departure” from this earth. ‘ The time of 
my departure is come,” he says. How like the 
Master he was in this respect. You remember 


68 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


Jesus never recognized any such thing as death. 
When He entered the room of the young woman, 
He said, “‘ The maid is not dead.” To Him death 
to the right-living was just going to the Iather’s 
house, to the place prepared for them. So was it 
to Paul. You recall that on another occasion, he 
said he desired “to depart and be with Christ, 
which is far better.”’ So, how little death is feared 
by those who like the apostle, see that 


“ There is no death, what seems so is transition.” 


What a victory instead of a misfortune. What a 
joy instead of a sorrow! Just a departure and 
not death at all. How often since Paul uttered 
those words in his serenity in the hour of death 
has the same triumph come to the disciples of 
Christ, down the centuries. I think of John Wes- 
ley. One day someone asked him what he would 
do, were he sure that the Lord would call him from 
earth that night? Mr. Wesley consulted his memo- 
randum book. Then he declared he would carry 
out his duties as planned, retire and waken in the 
morning with the Lord. 

But behind all this thought is the way by which 
we enter into the victory and the joy of it all. 
Paul tells us here. The first thing he says is a 
challenge to us all. “I have fought the good 
fight.” 

After all life itself is largely a struggle. Does 
not Job say that “ Man that is born of woman is 


WINNING THE WAITING CROWN 69 


of few days and full of trouble”? Life is such a 
fight against sorrow, sickness, pain, weakness, dis- 
appointment, failure, injustice, dishonour and 
doubt. It is a fight against the enemy within and 
without. Does not the poet murmur that 


“Life is full of farewell to the dying 
And mourning for the dead.’ 


Yes. But hear this old warrior. See him laying 
aside his weapons. See him ready for his reward. 
And there his younger comrade still in the thick 
of the fray. And now to this new leader comes 
the victory of the retiring commander—*“ I have 
fought the good fight.” And bear in mind that 
Paul does not say, “I have succeeded in the 
fight.” No. He simply declares, “I have fought 
the good fight.” Note those three last words, 
“The good fight.” And note especially the 
definite article “tke good fight.” For, life is 
really the good fight. It is the only fight worth 
struggling to win. And God does not judge the 
worth of the fight by its success or failure. Ah, 
no. You recall how Jesus rewarded the good 
steward by his ‘‘ Well done, good and faithful ser- 
vant.” Not ‘good and successful servant,” but 
“good and faithful servant.” God doesn’t ask us 
first, “Did you win?” No—but rather, “ what 
kind of a fight did you put up?” Browning 
caught this great truth when he wrote: 


70 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


“When the fight begins within himself, 
A man’s worth somethng— 
Prolong that battle through this life! 
Never leave growing till the life to come.” 


Yes, life is, at its best, a fight. It is a struggle 
against upgrades and counter-currents. As Paul 
himself said, ‘‘ When I would do good, evil is pres- 
ent.” Samuel Rutherford, that great saint of the 
centuries, once wrote to the Earl of Lothian, “ Be- 
lieve me, I find it hard wrestling to play fair with 
Christ and to maintain a course of communion 
with Him.” It takes the best we can do to win. 
We have to call into play every faculty and power 
we have. Yet, after all, God requires of us not 
that we shall surely win but that we surely fight. 
So, like the great apostle to the Gentiles, let us 
“put on the whole armour of God” and “ fight 
the good fight.” 

But further. The secret of Paul’s courage as he 
faced the Big Beyond was the kind of race he had 
run. Hear him—‘I have finished the course.” 
Oh, what a thing to say! The Lord had set a 
course before him, and he finished it! No lagging 
by the way. And no stopping till he reached the 
goal. Like the Olympic runners, he saw stretch- 
ing before him his ordered track, clear and well- 
defined. It was all marked out by the unseen 
hand of Him Whom he served. Think of his fare- 
well message to the Ephesians as he went forth 


WINNING THE WAITING CROWN “71 


into persecution: “ None of these things move me, 
neither count I my life unto myself, so that I 
might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, 
which I have received of the Lord Jesus.” And 
this was his “ good fight ”—that he “finish the 
course ”’—the task set before him. 

Yes, Paul had his race to run and he ranit. So 
has each of us his race to run. And it is marked 
out before us by the same unseen hand that 
marked out that great apostolic runner long ago. 
Sometimes, the way is smooth, and sometimes it 
is rough. Sometimes it is straight, and sometimes 
it is crooked. Then let us run it so that whatever 
it be, we, too, can one day say, like Paul, “ I have 
finished the course.” 

Don’t be discouraged, if, at times, the way be , 
dark. Just remember that it is “the way the 
Master trod.” Keep before you the goal and the 
prize not far ahead. Study to know just the 
course the Lord has mapped out for you. Find it. 
Then strike out. And never stop till the race is 
won. From the very beginning “let us lay aside 
every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset 
us, and let us run with patience the race that is set 
before us, looking unto Jesus.” ; 

Then think of the joy that is set before you, 
when your race is run. Eastertide brings it to our 
minds. How many have already run their course! 
Yes, how many since the last Eastertide! Their 
work was done, their tasks were finished. And 


42 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


their race was at an end. And now the laurel of 
victory. Be cheered with the thought that the 
good of living is largely found in fighting the good 
fight and running the long course. And never 
. falter till the last grade is made, till the last curve 
is rounded, and till the last yard is covered. Yes— 


“One step more, and the race is ended; 
One word more, and the lesson’s done; 
One toil more, and a long rest follows 
At set of sun.” 


But a third reason for this fine serenity of Paul 
in the face of death. He had never given up his 
religion—‘‘ I have kept the faith.” Oh, how he 
had been tempted to give up his faith. What a 
lot of pain he would have avoided had he done so. 
But, ’mid all the heathen philosophy and anti- 
Christian teachings of his day he was never moved 
to give up the precious pearl which he “ received 
of the Lord Jesus.”” Here was his watch-cry, “I 
determine to know nothing but Christ and Him 
crucified.” 

What is there in life more beautiful than love 
that stands loyal to the end. ‘That was Paul. 
Through sunshine and shadow he stood loyal to 
his Master-Friend. No amount of prosperity or 
adversity allured him for a moment from his duty 
to his Redeemer. The gracious Gospel of Jesus he 
counted dearer than his very life. 

And now standing on the verge of the Eternal 


WINNING THE WAITING CROWN %3 


Future he can raise his right hand, place it upon 
his heart, and lifting his eyes toward heaven, he 
can say, “I have kept the faith.’ Can we say 
this? Are we standing true to these great funda- 
mentals on which Paul based his life on earth and 
his hope hereafter? Are we really keeping the 
faith? Like Paul, are we spelling it out in golden 
letters of Christian deeds as we “ fight the good 
fight ” and run the race of life? Are we standing 
four-square loyal to Christ? Does He fill our 
soul’s horizon as He did Paul’s? Like the apostle, 
aS we are growing whiter with the years, are we 
growing closer to the Master-Lord? Are we cling- 
ing closer to the deeper truths of His blessed Good- 
Tidings? Is He gripping our thoughts and de- 
sires more tightly? Is He becoming more pre- 
cious to us as the years hasten on? Does He seem 
to us more and more the world’s One Great Hope? 
If so, we can say with Lucy Larcom: 


“ Old—we are growing old; 
Going up where the sunshine 1s clear; 
Watching grander horizons appear 
Out of clouds that enveloped our youth; 
Standing firm on the mountains of truth; 
Because of the glory the years unfold, 
We are joyfully growing old.” 


And now the reward of it all. “ Henceforth there 
is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at 


[4 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


that day; and not only to me, but also to all them 
that have loved His appearing.” Here we have 
the climax of a faithful life on earth. Toil, pain, 
faithfulness, and after that a crown. ‘That word 
“crown” holds within it ‘‘the unsearchable 
riches” of the world to come. Here it is the 
“crown,” not of gold or jewels, but “ of righteous- 
ness.”—-The crown of perfection. Every sin will 
be extinct, and the soul will be like Christ Himself. 
In another place, it is called “the crown of life” 
—the same crown. The fullness of life unending. 
Every faculty and quality of our being will be full- 
orbed. We'll see as we are seen, and we'll know 
as we are known. In another place it is called the 
“crown of glory”—the same crown—every toil 
and pain and sorrow of earth turned into “ joy un- 
speakable and full of glory.” 

This is the crown that Christ will share with us 
all who, like Paul, are ready for the Master, when 
He comes to take us to Himself. For, remember 
that, according to His promise, we are to sit with 
Him upon His throne. ‘“ Be thou faithful unto 
death,” said Jesus, “and I will give thee a crown 
of life.”” Note He didn’t say, ‘‘ Be thou clever and 
successful.”” No—“ Be thou faithful.” And how 
long? ‘‘ Unto death.” 

And what are we going to do with this crown? 
We're going to wear it beside the King of kings, 
and rule with Him over empires of which this 
earth will be but a parish. For you recall His 


WINNING THE WAITING CROWN 175 


promise, “‘ He that overcometh, I will give to him 
to sit down with Me in My throne.” 

Moreover, it is there waiting for each of us. 
“And not only to me, but also to all them that 
have loved His appearing.” What appearing does 
he mean? It is perfectly clear. One day He told 
His disciples He was soon to leave them. And 
they were filled with sorrow. But at once He 
turned to them and said, ‘“ Let not your heart be 
troubled . . . I go to prepare a place for you, 
and . . . Jwillcome again . . . and receive 
you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may 
be also.” There it is, “I will come again ”— 
‘““His appearing ” to take us to Himself. And as 
John says, “ When He appears, we shall be like 
Him.” | 

Now, those who “love His appearing ” are to 
wear this crown. Whoarethey? Here is the pic- 
ture of it. You remember the five wise virgins. 
They were ready and watching for the coming of 
the Bridegroom. They were filled with joy at the 
thought of His coming. And when He came they 
went out with lighted lamps to meet Him. But 
there was one who was not only ready for Him, 
and not only did she watch with joy for His com- 
ing. And when He came she loved His appearing. 
She was the Bride. But five were foolish. They 
were not ready for His coming. Their lamps were 
empty and untrimmed. And at the Bridegroom’s 


76 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


appearing they were filled with disappointment. 
They did not, they could not, “ Jove His appearing.” 

Are we ready for His coming? Are we so fight- 
ing the good fight, are we so running the race, are 
we so keeping the faith that when the Bridegroom 
comes for His Bride we shall actually “love His 
appearing? ” Not long ago, I stood at the bed- 
side of a young woman who, like Paul, was near- 
ing the end of the way. Never shall I forget the 
ecstasy that suddenly filled her soul. In an in- 
stant her pain left her and her face became trans- 
figured and uplifted. She was at once filled with 
joy inexpressible. Then stretching out her pale, 
limpid hand, she whispered, ‘“‘ Mother, I must go! 
I cannot stay! Isee the Lord! He is calling me, 
and—and—TI want to go to Him.” And in an in- 
stant, she went out to receive her “crown of 
righteousness.” She loved His appearing. 

Yes, we wonder so much why we have to so 
’ fight our way through life. I well remember when 
but a wee lad, my dear mother helped me over a 
hard place in my childhood by telling me she had 
something hidden away for me, if I would be a 
good boy, be brave and do the very best I could. 
And so the Great Father-Lord calls us “ little chil- 
dren” for such to Him we are. And He tells us 
that if we are brave and faithful and do our very 
best, He will give us a “crown” which He has 
“laid up” for us. We do not know just exactly 
what kind of crown it is. But we know its mate- 


WINNING THE WAITING CROWN 77 


rial was melted somewhere down deep in the great 
loving heart of God. It was fashioned by His re- 
deeming, perfecting hands. And we know it is 
“the crown of a good life,” for that is the original 
meaning of the phrase “A crown of righteous- 
ness.” The wearing of it will give us endless “ joy 
unspeakable and full of glory.” 

But when are we to receive the Crown? Some- 
time in the dim, far-distant future? No—when 
Jesus comes to receive us unto Himself. ‘‘ Which 
the Lord . . . shall give to me at that day.” 
What day? The day of “ His appearing.” The 
day when our fight is over and our course is fin- 
ished and our task is done. Blessed day! Earth 
crowned with heaven; time crowned with eternity; 
sin crowned with holiness; sorrow crowned with 
joy; humanity crowned with divinity. Man’s long 
watchful night crowned with God’s cloudless, end- 
less, Easter Morn. 


“And with the morn, those angel faces smile, 
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.” 


VI 


SHALL WE KNOW EACH OTHER 
HEREAFTER? 


“ Then shall I know, even as I also am known.” 
I CorINTHIANS 13: 12. 


HERE are many questions that occupy 

the mind of man. But perhaps this is 

the most vital of all—Shall we know each 

other in the world to come? Shall we recognize 

each other as on earth? Shall we know each as 

the same personality? When the mists have rolled 

away, Shall we know our neighbours, and, above 
all, the dear ones of our home? 

All down the ages we have asked this question. 
But how we have looked in vain for an answer. 
Our deepest faculties, our keenest senses, all the 
universe itself, have failed to tell us a word. Na- 
ture has the habit of being so silent. The heavens 
and the deep places of the soul seem wrapped in 
silence. As one of our recent writers says, “ It is 
not the noise of the rumbling daily world that 
maddens us. It is the maddening silence of life’s 
deepest things.” 

But God has not left us without some finger- 
posts. Along life’s way He points us to the Great 

78 


KNOW EACH OTHER HEREAFTER? ‘9 


City of our Immortality. And He has left us 
finger-posts that point to the dawn of his Great 
To-morrow when we shall know each other, when 
we have crossed the sea of earthly life. 

We see the primary law of demand and supply 
at work. Wherever the great Creator has planted 
a demand in the human being, sooner or later, and 
somewhere, He provides for it. We are hungry, 
and He provides us food. We are thirsty, and He 
provides us drink. We are tired, and He provides 
us rest. We are lonely, and He provides us 
friends. We thirst for the beautiful, and He pro- 
vides us beauty. We long for harmony, and He 
provides us music. We long for truth, and He 
provides us knowledge. We long to do, and He 
gives us power. We long for peace, and He com- 
forts us. And so is it with all our longings; He 
provides for each of them. So do we read, ‘“‘ Thou 
satisfiest the desire of every thing.” Again, we 
hear the Psalmist sing, “‘ He satisfieth the longing 
soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.” 
And you recall the comforting words of David 
concerning his child—‘ J shall go to him, but he 
shall not return to me.” And is it not most assur- 
ing when we hear Jesus say, “‘ Your heavenly 
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these 
things; . . . and all these things shall be added 
unto you.” As a father, how I should rejoice to 
meet the deepest need and longing of my child’s 
yearning heart. Jesus knew this and said, “If ye 


80 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


then . . . know how to give good gifts unto your 
children, how much more shall your heavenly 
Father give.” So we may rest assured that the 
Father of all yearning hearts will one day abun- 
dantly satisfy our thirst to know each other in the 
Great Beyond. 

To the mind of Jesus there seemed to be no 
doubt about this question of questions. Yet He 
said so little about it. But that was because, to 
“Him, it was an axiom. You know we spend little 
time explaining axioms; we just use them. And 
upon them we build the great superstructures of 
human life. But the Master does tell us some 
very cogent truths about our subject. You re- 
member when He spoke to His disciples about 
leaving this earth, He turned and said, “ Let not 
your heart be troubled,” and then a moment later 
he said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” Could 
you imagine Him preparing a place where his fol- 
lowers never know Him or their loved ones. Then, 
in the next sentence He said, “‘ I will come again 
and receive you unto Myself.” There you have it. 
One day He called His disciples His “ friends,” 
and now He is to receive his friends “ unto Him- 
self.” And, in the very next breath, He said, 
“ That where I am, there ye may be also.” No 
language could be simpler, clearer and more direct. 
Here He declares His “ friends ” will be with Him 
in the “ Father’s House.” Surely we should need 


KNOW EACH OTHER HEREAFTER? 81 


no further evidence that we shall know each other 
in the great Hereafter. 

And yet, we have a still further message from 
the blessed Lord of heaven and earth. For you 
will recall those memorable words of His to the 
centurion whose servant He healed. His heart was 
deeply moved with the centurion’s faith, and it 
seemed to Him to be the very gateway of heaven. 
And so He uttered these pregnant words, “J say 
unto you, that many shall come from the east and 
the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and 
Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.” 
There they are, grandfather, father and grandson, 
sitting down together in the kingdom of heaven. 
Not only do they know each other, but also they 
know each other as they are known. I think they 
know each other as the angels and the archangels 
know them. I think they know each other in very 
truth as God knows them. For you know Paul 
declared that our knowledge here was like seeing 
“through a glass darkly.” But he goes on to say 
that then we shall see “ face to face,” . . .“ then 
shall I know, even as also I am known.” There 
will be no cloud of sin or darkness to intercept 
our knowledge. We shall see each other as we 
really are. Our knowledge of each other shall be 
as clear as the light of heaven. From what Christ 
says, and from what Paul says, and from what the 
Sacred Word throughout says, 


82 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


“We shall know each other better, 
When the mists have rolled away.” 


And, if Abraham knows Isaac, and Isaac knows 
Jacob in the Realm Beyond, so will Abraham know 
his beloved Sarah, and Isaac his Rebecca, and 
Jacob his Rachael. So will Isaac know Esau, and 
so will Jacob know Joseph and Benjamin and all 
his other children. Why not? 

Let us go back to the human soul again. Let 
us look for a moment at the quenchless thirst in 
every heart to some day meet again the dear ones 
who have gone before, and then ask ourselves the 
question of common reason—how could we imagine 
the great Father Heart of Love that would forever 
fail to satisfy this thirst? This longing of the soul 
is a gap in the great cosmic universe within the 
soul of man. And only immortality and recogni- 
tion hereafter will fill the vacant place. Science 
has made its progress on the basis of the hypothesis 
that where there is a need there is, somewhere, 
somehow, something that will meet that need. So 
have our great discoveries and inventions been 
made. For example, for many years a gap in the 
heavens was observed. Disturbances occurred 
regularly every seventy-five years. It was as- 
sumed that some heavenly body every three-quar- 
ters of a century visited that part. After much 
observation, Halley discerned the comet that is 
called by his name. This explained the gap. So, 


KNOW EACH OTHER HEREAFTER? 83 


in the firmament of the soul when bereavement 
comes, there is a gap which can be filled only by 
the clear-cut faith that some day, somewhere we 
shall meet and know each other again. 

All peoples from the prehistoric past to the pres- 
ent have believed that we shall meet again. When 
the ancient savages buried their friends, they heard 
a voice from the deep of their breasts saying, ‘‘ We 
shall meet again.” And so their religions worked 
out this belief with clarity and precision. We 
have only to think of the primitive Babylonians, 
Egyptians and Indians. And all up through the 
ages from the days of Paul to the present time we 
find the world’s leaders confident of it. I think 
of the long list of modern leaders who held this 
belief very dear to their hearts. Among these are 
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Darwin, Alfred 
Russel Wallace, John Fiske, Michael Faraday, 
Henry George, Sir William Osler, Rudolph Eucken, 
Victor Hugo, and John Henry Jowett. Each of 
these was a world leader. 

Abraham Lincoln was America’s typical citizen. 
Read what he wrote when his father was nearing 
the Other Shore: “I sincerely hope that my father 
may yet recover his health, but at all events, tell 
him to remember to call upon and confide in our 
Great and Good Merciful Maker, who will not 
turn away from him in any extremity. . . . Say 
to him that, if we could meet now, it is doubtful 
whether it would not be more painful than pleas- 


84 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


ant; but that, if it be his lot to go now, he will 
soon have a joyous meeting with the many loved 
ones gone before, and where the rest of us, through 
the help of God, hope ere long to join them.” 
Hear the English poet-laureate as he chants to the 
memory of his beloved Arthur Hallam: 


“ And I shall know him when we meet; 
And we shall sit at endless feast, 
Enjoying each the other’s good.” 


No American poet ever reached greater heights 
than did Longfellow. Read again his lament to 
the memory of his young daughter: 


“ Not as a child shall we again behold her; 

For when with raptures wild ~~ 

In our embrace we again enfold her, 
She will not be a child. 

But a fair maiden in her Father’s mansion, 
Clothed with celestial grace; 

And beautiful with all the soul’s expansion 
Shall we behold her face.” 


Have you ever thought of how the story of the 
raising of Lazarus bears upon this question before 
us? When Jesus was about to raise Lazarus from 
the dead, He made the significant statement, “ Our 
friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may wake 
him out of his sleep.’ You will observe that to 
the Lord he was still Lazarus. He bore the same 
name and he was still His friend. And, notice 


KNOW EACH OTHER HEREAFTER? 85 


still further, he was still not only the friend of 
Jesus, but the friend of others; for Jesus said “ our 
friend Lazarus.” So we discern here three points 
about Lazarus while he was beyond the portals of — 
this life; (1) he preserved his identity; (2) he 
continued to be a particular personal friend; (3) 
he was still the friend of the friends he had left 
behind. 

So it is only one step to see that the dear one of 
yours to whom you said a sad farewell still has 
his identity, is still your friend and is still the 
friend of all the friends he left behind. 

And then note, still further, that when Lazarus 
met his friends again he was still their friend as of 
old. ‘The same old love burned brightly on the 
altar of all their hearts. He was still Lazarus, the 
brother, and they were still Mary and Martha, his 
sisters, and Jesus, his closest of all friends. It is 
therefore easy to see that when we unite again with 
those who have gone before, we shall still be 
friends bound together in the great bundle of love 
that made our fellowship on earth so precious. 

There is also another very significant statement 
of Jesus. You recall the day He went into the 
room where the young maiden lay, in what the 
ages have called death. Friends were in mourn- 
ing. Hearts were in anguish. But hear the Mas- 
ter of life and death utter these immortal words, 
“ She is not dead.” Jesus never recognized death. 
He knew that what men called death was but an- 


86 “'THERE IS NO DEATH” 


other name for a higher and realer life. He knew 
it was but the door through which we pass into 
the perfection of all earth’s relationships. He 
knew that it meant the perfecting of these personal 
fellowships begun this side of heaven. ‘Then, if 
in death men do not die, neither shall die these 
personal relationships that make our life on earth 
so dear. Edward Bulwer-Lytton caught the reg- 
nant fact that what we call death is but the rising 
of the eternal sun upon the night of time. He saw 
with the Christ-mind that death is the larger life, 
the clearer vision, the higher altitude, the deeper 
reach and the final sense of all the ties lived out 
on earth. This is his song: 
“There is no death! The stars go down 
To rise upon some other shore, 
And bright in heaven's jewelled crown 
They shine forevermore. 


There is no death! The forest leaves 


Convert to life the viewless air; 
The rocks disorganize to feed 


The hungry moss they bear. 


There is no death! The dust we tread 
Shall change, beneath the summer showers, 
To golden grain, or mellow fruit, 

Or rainbow-tinted flowers. 


And ever near us though unseen, 
The dear immortal spirits tread, 
For all the boundless universe 
Is life— There are no dead,” 


KNOW EACH OTHER HEREAFTER? 87 


Death is so often called a sleep. The Greeks 
used to call it such, and you remember how Jesus 
said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.” What a 
beautiful figure this is! Just a little closing of 
the eyes, a little shutting of the lips and a little 
folding of the hands. And then the great awaken- 
ing in “ The Father’s House.” And you remem- 
ber how the Psalmist said, “I shall be satisfied 
when I awake in His likeness.” Satisfied! Just 
think of it—satisfied/ After all the night of 
mourning—satisfied. ‘That means that to those 
who set out upon the long, long journey we say but 
“good night” and in “a little while” “ good 
morning.” TI like the way Mrs. Barbauld puts it: 


“ Life! we've been long together 
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; 
°Tis hard to part when friends are dear,— 
Perhaps “twill cost a sigh, a tear; 
Then steal away, give little warning, 
Choose thine own time; 
Say not ‘Good Night, but in some brighter clime 
Bid me ‘Good Morning, ” 


I think, too, that Ella Wheeler Wilcox was 
thinking out this thought when she wrote: 


“T cannot make it seem a day to dread, 
When from this dear earth I shall journey out 
To that still dearer country of the dead, 
And join the lost ones so long dreamed about. 
I love thts world, yet shall I love to go 
And meet the friends who wait for me, I know.” 


88 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


Once more. Have you ever thought of this old 
world as the Father’s Mansion, in which are many 
rooms? We are told that there is at least two 
billion stars, and that each of these is likely a 
world. Then, oh, how many rooms there are in 
the Father’s House! And it seems to me that 
death is just the going out from one of God’s 
rooms into another. So, separated by death, we 
are but each in his room, though we cannot see 
each other, nor can we hear each other’s voice. 
It was this that the Master meant when He said, 
“I go to prepare a place for you.” And so all 
down the ages He has been preparing for His chil- 
dren each his room. And “in a little while’ He 
will call us from this earthly room to His Higher 
Room. Then shall we all dwell together in the 
place from which we shall never part. As Robert 
Freeman sings: 


“ No, not cold beneath the grasses, 
Not close-walled within the tomb; 
Rather, in our Father’s mansion, 
Living in another room. 


Living, like the man who loves me, 
Like my child with cheeks abloom, 
Out of sight, at desk or school-book, 
Busy in another room. 


Nearer than my son whom fortune 
Beckons where the strange lands loom; 
Just behind the hanging curtain, 
Serving in another room. 





KNOW EACH OTHER HEREAFTER? 89 


Shall I doubt my Father's mercy? 
Shall I think of death as doom, 
Or the stepping o’er the threshold 
To a bigger, brighter room? 


Shall I blame my Father’s wisdom? 
Shall I sit enswathed in gloom, 
When I know my loves are happy— 
Waiting, in another room?” 


Then with this hallowed sleep, let us chase away 
the cloud of sorrow. Let us see the sun of a bet- 
ter day rising beyond the hills of Time. Let us 
behold our loved ones in the joy of their new 
abode. And then lift the curtain a little higher 
and behold the Blessed Morning when once again 
we shall see them “ face to face.” When in each 
other’s arms our cup of joy will forever overflow. 
Then shall we be rewarded a million times for all 
the tears and pains of this present hour. Then 
shall we know each other as we are known, and 
then shall we see the clear crystal deep of each 
other’s love and worth. I think I hear our dear 
ones call to us from the Other Shore: “ If you but 
knew as we now know the blessing of the hour that 
men call death, you would wipe away your tear 
and your sorrow would be gone.” I think they 
would add to this: “if you but knew the love of 
God as we now know it, you would see that He 
knows best, and you would leave it all with Him, 
and that would bring you the peace you so much 


90 * THERE IS NO DEATH” 


long to have.” It was surely this that Robert 
Browning had in mind when with these lines he 
gave back to God his faithful wife: 


“Then a light, then thy breast, 
O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again 
And with God be.the rest!” 


But to enjoy these blessings of the Vast Beyond, 
what duty is laid upon us here? Surely there is 
something we must do? We must not sit idly by 
and wait. Ours must be the lighted lamp and the 
girded loin. There is a way of love and right in 
which we must direct our steps. We must walk 
according to the degree of truth we know. We 
must live the life of loyal service to God and all 
mankind. But how can we know the way we 
should tread, the truth we should follow and the 
life we should pursue, so that at the end of the 
journey of Time we may justly claim the blessings 
of God’s Great To-morrow? A searching ques- 
tion! What is the answer? Only One ever an- 
swered it. And He said, ‘‘ Follow Me ’”—for “J 
am the Way to walk, the Truth to follow, the Life 
to live.” He has the keys—follow Him! He | 
holds the secret—follow Him! Time and Eter- 
nity are in His hands—close in upon Him. The 
finalities of all the world are His—grip His hand. 
The priceless rewards that follow death belong to 
Him—serve Him day and night. 

Then soon in the arms of dear ones long since 


KNOW EACH OTHER HEREAFTER 91 


gone before, you will behold the tragic error of 
human hearts all down the ages. You will then 
discover that the sorrows of death are in disguise 
our greatest joys. You will then find that these 
rending losses are our unsearchable gains. Yes, 
you will then behold the biggest fact of all the uni- 
verse, which, if we could now but grasp, would in 
an hour transform this sad old earth into a sunlit 
heaven. You will then learn the blest eternal 
truth, beneath all truth that—There Is No Death. 


“Oh, greater truth no man has said, 
“There is no death, there are no dead, 


It brings before the eyes of faith 
Those realms of radiance, tier on tier, 
Where our beloved ‘dead’ appear, 
More beautiful because of ‘ death? 
It speaks to grief: ‘ Be comforted; 
There is no death, there are no dead, ” 


VII 
COMFORT IN THE HOUR OF DEATH 


“Let not your heart be troubled.’—JoHN 
14:1. 


S there can be no picture without a back- 
A ground, so these words of Jesus can be 

understood only in the light of their back- 
ground. The Master and His disciples had been 
in the closest of friendship. ‘Their hearts were 
bound together in the sweet unity of love. They 
had hung upon His words. They had leaned upon 
His breast. Their hearts had burned within them 
as they walked and talked with Him. They had 
grown to love Him more than brother or sister, 
husband or wife. 

Mid the warm glow of this loving devotion of 
His disciples, Jesus one day rose and, with all the 
tenderness of heaven, uttered one sentence that 
turned their day into night, and plunged them into 
the darkness of despair. It was a bolt from the 
clear blue. Sorrow filled their hearts. Hope fled 
to the winds. It seemed to them the end of all 
things had come. There was little left for which 
to live. Life’s bubble had burst and nothing 


worth while remained. The sun seemed no more 
92 


COMFORT IN THE HOUR OF DEATH 93 


to rise, and clouds filled the air. Life’s silver cord 
was loosed, its golden bowl was broken, its pitcher 
was broken at the fountain, and its wheel was 
broken at the cistern. And, like the Preacher of 
old, they exclaimed in their hearts, ‘‘ Vanity of 
vanities.” And why all this? 

The answer is found in the sentence Jesus ut- 
tered. It was a death sentence. He had just told 
them He would send them the Comforter, the 
Helper, the Teacher, who would tell them the 
meaning of all He had said and done. And then 
fell the words of sorrow. Hear them as I speak 
them in tones subdued, “But now I go My way 
to Him that sent Me; it is expedient for you that 
I go away.”” What does He mean? What can He 
mean? ‘‘ What is this that He saith unto us? ” 
said some of His disciples. Surely He is not speak- 
ing of death? Yes, He is, for in plain language 
He added, “A little while, and ye shall not see 
Me ... ., because I go to the Father.” 

Now it is plain to them. The awiul fact of 
death is upon them. They must give up from 
earth the very heart of their lives. They must sur- 
render their dearest friend in the world. Sorrow 
overwhelms them. 

It would seem that in such an hour, there was 
no comfort to be found. And surely, if ever the 
human soul is filled with trouble and pain, it is 
when the treasure of the heart is taken away. Yet — 
it was in this very hour when, having made the 


94 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


announcement of His death, and, seeing the sor- 
row that filled His disciples’ heart, He said, “ Let 
not your heart be troubled.” 

Why then did the Master make such a request 
at such an hour? It seems so unnatural. For 
surely our hearts will always be troubled when 
death enters our door. Yet He said it. More 
than that, note the meaning of that word “ trou- 
bled.” Haven’t you noticed when you threw a 
pebble into the calm water how the ripple went 
out in ever enlarging circles? What happened? 
We say the water was “ troubled.” So said Jesus, 
‘‘ Let there not be a ‘ ripple’ in your hearts, even 
in this hour of my approaching death.” It seems 
impossible. And yet He who stilled the waves and 
raised the dead said it. There must have been a 
good reason for His saying it. He surely must 
have known it was possible to be untroubled even 
in the hour of death. 

So we enquire why He said those words. And 
our answer is the comfort of the text. First of all, 
keep in mind Him who said the words. It was He 
who had brought sight to the blind and life to the 
dead; He therefore ‘“‘spoke as one having au- 
thority.” 

Jesus knew the meaning of it all. He saw the 
pearl within the shell, though hidden to the eye 
of men. He saw the vaster life beyond the gates 
of what we call death. He saw the blessed pur- 
pose of His going away. Could we but see the 


COMFORT IN THE HOUR OF DEATH 95 


meaning of it all, as He saw it, our hearts in the 
valley of death would remain untroubled. 

Jesus saw there was no such thing as death. 
Once when He was ushered into the room where 
lay the lifeless body of a young maiden, He quietly 
said, ‘She is not dead.” Later, it is said of the 
Apostle Paul, who knew the mind of Jesus better 
than any other man that ever lived, that He did 
not speak of dying, but that he desired to “ de- 
part, and be with Christ.” Indeed that is just 
how death appeared to the Master; just taking 
final leave of this earth to live in the immediate 
presence of God. 

Surely it would be the greatest possible blessing 
to us, could we grasp in faith the importance of 
this fact that men never die. Science is pointing 
its finger in this direction more and more every 
day. It tells us these bodies of ours are entirely 
changed every six or seven years. Then some of 
us have lived in five different bodies, some in six 
and some in ten. We remember the same self 
living in them all. And one day the last body will 
not grow a new body, and bit by bit the walls will 
crumble, till finally we’ll each move out into a new 
body prepared for us. For you remember the 
apostle telling us that “if the earthly house of our 
tabernacle be dissolved, we have an house not 
made with hands eternal in the heavens.” 

Some one has said there are few vacant houses 
in Buffalo. The other day I asked an official of 


96 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


the Forest Lawn Cemetery how many were buried 
there. He answered, “About fifty thousand.” 
Then there are at least fifty thousand vacant 
houses in our fair city. And yet we will go on 
saying this one and that one are buried in the 
cemetery. Never! How gross, how unfair and 
how undignified to speak of our dear ones lying in 
the ground, when long ago they moved out of the 
old house into a new and better one. When shall 
we discern between the dwelling and the dweller? 
When shall we see as Oliver Wendell Holmes saw? 
At eighty-six he was met one morning by a friend 
who said, “ Good morning, Dr. Holmes, how are 
you to-day?” He replied: “Thank you, my 
house is tottering, but I am very well myself.” 

No, Jesus did not recognize death. He saw 
that men, made in the eternal image of God, do 
not, cannot, die. They are made out of the im- 
perishable substance of God Himself. For, re- 
member it was God’s breath breathed into man 
that made man a living soul. And God’s breath is 
immortal. This was as plain to Jesus as the light 
of the rising sun. 

And yet men for ages had not seen this fact of 
our immortality. They had long since failed to 
discriminate between the soul and the body. 
Theirs was a pagan conception. Soon it crept 
into the early Christian Church. And it is only 
slowly breaking upon the Church now that all 
these centuries it has been pagan in its idea of 


dl 


COMFORT IN THE HOUR OF DEATH 97 


death. When shall we get away entirely from such 
remnants of heathendom that keep us still in the 
sorrow of what we think is death, when all the 
while God intends us to know there is no death? 

To gain this untroubled heart in the sorrow of 
death, Jesus calls us back to our faith in God. 
“Let not your heart be troubled,” He says, “ ye 
believe in God.” Here it is—the old unshaken im- 
plicit trust in God. With all our modern discov- 
eries, great as they are, we rest our hope on the 
unchanging love of God. 

Surely, if there is ever an hour when men need 
faith in God it is in the hour of death. And here 
we are using the word “ death” again. When will 
someone rise and give us another word that will 
mean just what Christ meant when He used the 
word? ‘Till then we must go on using the old 
term. It is in such an hour we specially need to 
lean upon God. It is then we cry unto Him, 
whether we have not done so in the past score of 
years. For there seems no other help for our 
stricken hearts. So, if a man’s religion is worth 
anything to him, it will show itself in that dark 
hour. You may think you are an atheist. But 
wait till you stand by the new-made grave of some 
precious one, and you'll find there are depths in 
you that will scorn your puny doubts, and you will 
turn to God who made you. So I say, when 
comes the hour of death, lean hard on God, place 


98 * THERE IS NO DEATH” 


your weak child-hand in His strong Father-hand, 
and let Him lift you up and kiss you into peace. 
And don’t. forget who and what God is. There 
have been so many different ideas about God. And 
some of these thoughts about Him have been of 
little comfort in sorrow. For example, how little 
it comforts us to think that God is a mighty Crea- 
tor, or King or Judge. A few centuries ago our 
fathers looked for the best name for the Deity. 
So they examined their dictionaries and records 
old and new. At last they fell upon the word 
god, an old word for “ good.” So, were we look- 
ing as they were, we would call Him Good. It 
seems to be the very essence of His being. It 
gathers up all that is strong and loving, noble and 
beautiful, and crystallizes it into one word. You 
believe that God is good. You remember that 
when He made the world, He saw it was good. 
Why? Because the stamp of His goodness was 
upon it. And every moment since, He has shown 
us His goodness. The Psalmist saw it and chanted, 
‘“‘ Praise the Lord, for He is good.” In goodness 
He brought us into the world: in goodness He has 
kept us: in goodness He has redeemed us: in 
goodness He binds us together in love: and in the 
same goodness He in His own time separates us 
in death for “a little while.” So, let us trust His 
goodness in death as we have in life. If we do, 


there will continue to come to us the blessing of. 


ee 


COMFORT IN THE HOUR OF DEATH 99 


the words of Jesus when He said, “ Let not your 
heart be troubled.” 

The heart of God always goes out toward us in 
goodness. He only waits our willingness to re- 
ceive it. But, alas, how often we permit a barrier 
to stand in the way. We press a button, and the 
light shines and the wheels turn. What has hap- 
pened? Contact has taken place between the 
transmitter and the receiver. But one day we 
press the button and there is neither light nor 
power. Why? Something foreign to man and to 
electricity has gotten in. The transmitter could 
not transmit its blessing of light and power. Just 
exactly so it is with the goodness of God. Some- 
thing from the beginning of human history has 
gotten in between God and us. Somehow in its 
essence it is foreign to the real nature of us all. 
It prevents God from transmitting to us the bless- 
ings of His goodness. It is generally called sin; 
some call it error. It matters not what you call 
it. Nor does it matter how it got there; the im- 
portant thing is it must be removed. There is no 
use trying to do anything else than to remove it. 

I once attended an entertainment at which a 
man performed with a reptile. He did it with per- 
fect ease. At the close I asked him why he had 
no fear? Had he trained it? No. Had he regu- 
lated it? No. He had taken the fang out of it. 
There was no other way of safety. So we hear 
the prophets, teachers, priests, philosophers and 


100 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


reformers trying, each in his own way, to over- 
come the evil that so separates the goodness of 
God from man. And remember that all the while 
God is really never separated from man. The 
father never was really separated from the prodi- 
gal son. He followed his son in his inmost heart 
to the very swine he fed. But his robe, his ring, 
his fatted calf and all the other blessings of his 
house were separated from his son. The gap of 
waywardness was between them. So, I hear John 
saying, “‘ Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh 
away the sin of the world.” He removes the fang 
of sin. And now with this foreign evil substance 
removed, we are brought into full communion with 
God. And immediately the blessings of his good- 
ness flow down into our hearts. And with it comes 
“the peace of God that passeth understanding.” 
That’s why Jesus said, “ believe also in Me.” 

Another reason why Jesus said, ‘“‘ Let not your 
heart be troubled ” is found in the nature of His 
departure. You know how ready true love is to 
sacrifice for the good and happiness of those whom 
it loves. Soon their beloved Jesus was to be in 
paradise: “‘ to-day, shall thou be with me in para- 
dise”’; “I go to the Father,” He declared. 

And so it is with our dear ones when they leave 
us in death. They go into the Father’s home: 
“In My Father’s house are many mansions.” 
Think of it: going out into the presence of the 
Father from whose loins we have all come and 


COMFORT IN THE HOUR OF DEATH 101 


whose spiritual blood flows eternally in our veins. 
Into his palace we go. Why? Because we are 
regally made. Imperial glory is stamped upon our 
inmost souls. No less a place would meet the 
splendour of our royal nature. 

Yes—The Father’s House! that means we shall . 


return unto Him from whom we came. We shall | 


return unto the old homestead of the soul. Have 
you not felt the thrill of joy as you returned from 
time to time to your father’s home, the place of 
your childhood? ‘The old gate, the old path, the 
old home, the old orchard, the old barn, the old 
winding stream. A hundred sensations of youth- 
ful days surged through your veins. Magnify this 
thought a million times and catch some glimpse 
of the joy unspeakable that must fill the soul as it 
wings its trackless flight into its Father’s home. 
The dew of eternal youth will rest forever upon 
our brow. Jesus saw all this and so in the hour 
of death He said, “‘ Let not your heart be troubled.” 

And now think what kind of a place is the 
Father’s Home. Years ago when I was a college 
student, once a year I took a long trip to my 
mother’s home. What, if there had been no order 
in that home when I reached it. It would not 
have been home. But there it was, everything 
set in order, everything fully prepared. There 
was my prepared place at the prepared table and 
my prepared bed in the prepared room, even the 
clothes turned down and just the kind of pillow 


102 “THERE IS NO DEATH” 


I used in childhood days. That was a bit of real 
heaven to me once a year at least. So, said Jesus, 
“if you being evil know how to give good gifts 
to your children, how much more your Heavenly 
Father.” There it is—the Father’s House pre- 
pared by His loving hand for each of His chil- 
dren! Everything set in order so that it will ab- 
solutely meet our peculiar need. Think for a mo- 
ment how God has prepared the starry heavens, 
the bounteous earth, the beautiful flower and the 
wondrous body with its keen sense of sight and 
sound, and the mind with its ten thousand sweet 
exalted thoughts. When I think of all His prepa- 
ration through the timeless ages in sky and land 
and sea, my heart leaps in a rapture at the thought 
of how infinitely blessed will be the place “ pre- 
pared”’ for us. That’s what Jesus had in mind 
when He said, “ Rejoice and be exceeding glad, 
for great is your reward in heaven,” and, a little 
later, ‘“‘ Let not your heart be troubled.” 

With velvet foot the risen Lord will come for 
us. He will not send some retinue to take us to 
the prepared rooms in the father’s House. Nor 
will He send an archangel. No, He will come 
Himself. ‘I will come again and receive you © 
unto Myself.” Each of us in his own time will | 
hear His call. “‘ My sheep know My voice.” And 
we'll answer each to his call. No one else will 
hear it. Many times at the deathbed have the 
dying told me they heard the Master call. Not 


COMFORT IN THE HOUR OF DEATH 103 


long ago a man of forty-five when nearing the end 
whispered to me, ‘‘I see Jesus coming for me.” 
A little later a young woman nearing the brink 
turned to her mother and said in my hearing, 
“‘ Mother, dear, I must go, for I hear Jesus calling 
me.” With deep unspeakable peace she stretched 
forth her hands to go. In a few moments the un- 
seen Saviour received both these friends into His 
arms, and they went forth with Him. And, as He 
carried them away, I could hear Him whisper, 
“Let not your heart be troubled . . . for where 
I am there shall ye be also.”” And they were filled 
with “joy unspeakable.” JI think I hear them 
singing, ‘Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy 
staff they comfort me.” 

All down the ages men have asked the ever- 
living question, What is heaven? And no one 
has ever answered it. Not even did Jesus try to 
answer it. But what difference does it make 
where it is. For, after all, it is not so much a 
matter of place. Thousands in the most beautiful 
places on earth have been in very hades. And 
thousands in the most unsightly places have been 
in the very shades of heaven. 

The true answer is found in the word compan- 
tionship. Where is your real home? Is it some- 
where in Buffalo; on some street, in some house? 
No, it really is not here or there. It is an experi- 
ence of the soul: it is a companionship born out 
of love. It is the communion of heart and heart, 


104 * THERE IS NO DEATH” 


between you and the dear ones of your family. 
That’s home. It is not a place so much as a com- 
panionship of loved ones. So it is with heaven. 
It’s not just a place amid the planets or the 
stars. No. It is a companionship of the soul. It 
will be companionship with Abraham and Moses 
and Paul and above all these with our dear de- 
parted ones. But, it is chiefly an ever-blessed fel- 
lowship with Him who has redeemed us unto Him- 
self. ‘‘So shall we ever be with the Lord.” 

Yes, ‘“ Where I am there shall ye be also.” 
“Where I am!” Just stop for one moment and 
think of this. ‘In the Father’s House where I 
am. At the Father’s right hand where I am, shar- 
ing with Me the government of the world.” Think 
of it, ‘joint-heirs with Christ.” ‘ Kings and 
priests unto him,” ruling with Him over empires 
of which these United States will be but as a 
parish. Then “let not your heart be troubled.” 

We have often wondered what kind of bodies 
we shall have after death. Many have been the 
theories. Will whole or part of these present 
bodies survive? Will they be material or spir- 
itual? After all, it matters little what the answer, 
for all such answers are overshadowed by the 
blessed message of the apostle that he “ will fash- 
ion these bodies like unto his glorious body.” 
Think of it a body like the Lord’s—a body with 
no taint of sin; a body clothed in the beauty of 
holiness; a body transformed into the glory of 


COMFORT IN THE HOUR OF DEATH 105 


heaven. Then what does it matter what kind of 
bodies we have after death, so long as they are 
like His? That means no more sickness or pain 
or weakness of any kind. Yes, we shall see the 
King in His beauty and we shall be beautiful like 
Him. Surely to think that we shall enter into 
such a glorious body should keep our hearts un- 
troubled in the hour of death. 

But there is still a higher reason why our hearts _ 
should be at peace when the shadows of death 
gather about us. For when we step out into the 
Great Beyond, we shall rise to heights of which 
our present life is but a shadow. We shall rise 
to vaster heights than ever man attained on earth. 
We'll soar higher than the best of saints that ever 
graced this world. Higher than the world’s great- 
est prophets, kings and saints. Yes, we shall rise 
higher than the angels of heaven. We shall be 
like Himself—our Lord and King. ‘“ For it does 
not yet appear what we shall be,” declares the apos- 
tle, “‘ but we know that when he shall be manifest, 
we shall be like Him.” 


Think of it!—*“ like Him.’ ‘“ Like Him” in - 


perfect balance of character; “like Him ” in abso- 
lute purity of soul; “like Him” full of grace and 
truth; “like Him” the one “ altogether lovely ”; 
“like Him” the bright and morning star; “ like 
Him ” without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; 
“like Him” whose “countenance is as the sun 
shineth in His strength.” It staggers, it over- 


106 “ THERE IS NO DEATH” 


whelms, one to contemplate it. No wonder as the 
climax of all this the Psalmist should sing, “I 
shall be satisfied when I awake in His likeness.” 

Yes, if we but knew the meaning of the hour 
of death as Christ knew it when He uttered the 
words of our text, death would lose its sting and 
we would go forth with “ joy unspeakable and full 
of glory.” Indeed, I venture to say, could we for 
one moment catch a glimpse of the full-orbed 
blessing of what we call death, we could not sur- 
vive the view. It would completely overwhelm us. 
All earthly life would lose its worth and we should 
be utterly dissatisfied and discontent. Yes— 


“Tf you but knew, 
Dear heart, the final aim of all your pain, 
The sorrow that hath filled your soul, 
Just why it came and what its goal, 
"Mid all your years, you would have no more tears, 
For you would see God’s plan of love.” 


If you but knew, dear heart of sorrow, if you but 
really knew “God’s plan of love,’ then yours 
would be “ the untroubled heart.’ To you would 
come at once the joy—the joy unspeakable—that 
after all—there is no death. ‘Then, till the curtain 
lifts, trust well the Great Christ Heart of all the 
world. Hear him whisper to you, as long ago he 
did to his sorrowing friends, “let not your heart 
be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me.” 


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to-day than the Second Coming of Christ. Those who 
wish light in the matter will find help in this carefully 
prepared book.”—Herald and Presbyter. 


FRANCIS ASAWIGHT, D.D 


Pastor, Center Street Baptist Church, 
Jamaica Plains, Mass. 


The Kingdom of God 


Or, The Reign of Heaven Among Men. $1.50. 

Mr. Wight brings all Biblical teaching of both the Old 
and the New Testament into complete harmony, enabling, 
an earnest, truth-seeking student to undersand the pur 
pose and nature of the Coming Kingdom, 


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